Earlier this morning, the New York Court of Appeals issued its decision in the litigation challenging the State Education Department regulations.   While we believe that the Appellate Division’s decision should have been reversed, the Court of Appeals’ affirmance is based on an interpretation of the regulations that severely limits the State Education Department’s authority over yeshivas and yeshiva parents.

SED cannot take the enforcement actions that it had previously announced.

The Commissioner claims to be able to direct parents to unenroll their children from their yeshiva, but the Court of Appeals has now authoritatively held that the regulations do not permit that step.  The Court of Appeals also made it absolutely clear that SED is not authorize to close schools, and it t further held that it is up to parents to determine how to ensure compliance with the Education Law.

PEARLS has been fighting SED for ten years to make that very point:  that parents and not the State have control over the upbringing and education of their children.

These holdings of the Court of Appeals are especially significant because at oral argument SED conceded that parents can combine educational sources to satisfy the compulsory education obligation.  Since schools can’t be closed by SED and children can’t be forced to unenroll, the practical effect is that parents can supplement any missing instruction at home or an after-school program.

That is what we have been advocating since the beginning of this litigation.

The Court of Appeals decision has especially significant implications for the six yeshivas that SED has directed to close, and for the dozens of parents whose children were denied special education services at those yeshivas for the coming school year.

SED based its denial on its determination that those yeshivas “are no longer schools” and that children are not permitted to attend those schools in September. The Court of Appeals has now definitely ruled that SED does not have the authority to make those determination.

The NYC Department of Education rejected the requests for special education services submitted by parents on the belief that their children can no longer attend those schools.  Given today’s Court of Appeals decision to the contrary, we look forward to working with Mayor Adams and the Department of Education to ensure that those parents are quickly advised that their children can continue to receive services at their yeshivas.

The Court of Appeals also refused to credit SED’s argument that the six yeshivas deemed non-equivalent cannot become equivalent by using the new pathways created by the recent amendments to the Education Law.

We hope that the State Education Department and the Department of Education will now do the right thing.  If they don’t, we will continue to fight for our mosdos and our mesorah.

We are grateful to Torah Umesorah and Agudath Israel, which joined with us as parties to the litigation.

In the merit of Klal Yisroel working together with achdus, may we continue to see siyata dishmaya.