The Albany Supreme Court just issued its decision in the closely-watched challenge to the regulations recently enacted by the State Education Department. The opinion by Justice Christine Ryba held that the part of the New Regulations that penalizes parents and yeshivas if a school is determined not to be substantially equivalent was improper, noting that “the Compulsory Education Law does not authorize or contemplate the imposition of penalties or other consequences upon a nonpublic school that has been found to not provide substantially equivalent education.” The Court found that this aspect of the New Regulations is “inconsistent with the legislative goal of the Compulsory Education Law and exceeds the rule making authority conferred upon respondents.”
Justice Ryba therefore struck down the provisions of the New Regulations that provided that if a nonpublic school receives an unfavorable final determination on substantial equivalency “the nonpublic school shall no longer be deemed a school which provides compulsory education fulfilling the requirement of the Compulsory Education Law.”
The Court noted that “most importantly, there is nothing in the Compulsory Education Law that limits a child to procuring a substantially equivalent education through merely one source of instruction provided at a single location So long as the child receives a substantially equivalent education through some source or combination of sources, the Legislative purpose of compulsory education is satisfied” and that a parent can satisfy the compulsory education requirement “such as by providing supplemental home instruction in compliance with the home schooling regulations.”
The decision rejected the SAPA claims advanced by the Petitioners, and held that it is premature to rule on the constitutional claims, which can be brought after a local school district completes a substantial equivalency review.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL RULING
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7 Responses
Reminder that in NYS the Supreme Court is the LOWER Appellate Court and the state could still appeal this decision to the Court of Appeals
The מזל of אדר Court cases still not dissipated less than 1 day after expiration of אדר, or maybe still considered ל’אדר בשמים
yaffed Y’MS ain’t gona like this !!!
Where else is the news?
Rashi comments that simchas Adar continues thru Nissan
it says from אדר the שמחה builds up until חודש אב daily and now ב”ה we see it come alive
and there is still more time we hope it will get better and better YWN i hope you will post soon even better news on this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The article should mention if this was a single justice in the “trial” division of the Supreme Court (meaning a judge for Albany County) or whether it was the Appellate Division for the regional division that includes Albany (meaning that the next step would be the New York Court of Appeals).
The YWN’s editors ignorance of the New York judiciary suggests that “civics” is one subject that should be included in yeshiva English studies.