Sunday, May 06, 2007

Religious Preschools and the NYC Safety Code

The NYTimes reports that a new proposal might require NYC religious preschools, long exempted from the health regulations that apply to other city preschools, to come into compliance with the strict code. No one quoted in the article seems very pleased with the prospect, from those who run preschools in Chassidic Williamsburg to the Modern Orthodox Yeshiva of Flatbush.

I can understand these schools' worries about the difficulty of potentially having to come into compliance suddenly, but it strikes me as a good idea to have some sort of safety code for these programs. Anyone know if there is any sort of set of regulations at all for these religious preschools?

15 comments:

  1. I've seen a bunch of public schools which are code-compliant; if the yeshivot are afraid that those standards will be higher than the ones they keep, then we should all be ashamed.

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  2. Anonymous12:06 PM

    Wow. I would think that private schools would have the same standards since a nurse from the school district (or from NYC in this case) would be in charge of reviewing medicals and making sure the kids have their immunizations.

    Pretty scary, isn't it?

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  3. Anonymous12:12 PM

    I see it is more than health. It is about space and teacher credentials too.

    It doesn't paint a very nice picture of private pre-school.

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  4. Anonymous1:15 PM

    And I though we answered to a higher authority!!!!

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  5. Anonymous11:56 PM

    Oh boy...Lots of interesting stories ahead!

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  6. Before anyone gets upset, I'd be interested in knowing which parts of the code these schools aren't meeting. Often, health codes have standards which are, under many circumstances, ridiculously strict, and far beyond what any reasonable parent would normally expect in the school.

    Are we talking about schools with peeling lead paint? Or about schools whose window bars are 3 inches apart instead of 2 inches apart?

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  7. Thank G-d, private schools have long been exempt from the regulations to which public schools are subject. I can understand that it is expensive and difficult to comply, but in the end it works out better for everyone.

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  8. Anonymous11:01 AM

    i do think that all school should comply with safety standards- but reasonable ones.

    additionaly everyone complains about the tuition crisis. if these new rules go into effect the cost of tuition may very well go up to cover the costs of implementing all of these new standards.

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  9. Anonymous2:32 PM

    I'm all for saving money on tuition, but I'd rather pay higher tuition than pay for the consequences of lax health standards in my children's schools.

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  10. Anonymous3:51 PM

    sure but what about for a good religious education is that not a good reason to pay high tuition

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  11. Anonymous4:21 PM

    Um, I kind of assumed that a quality education was understood as a goal and didn't need to be stated. I'm just saying that even the best classroom education is hardly worthwhile if our kids' health is not being safeguarded while they get that great education.

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  12. Anonymous6:57 PM

    i agree i was directing my comments to those who complain about the high cost of yeshivas

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  13. Anonymous10:46 AM

    OK, everyone take a deep breath. Schools are OF COURSE subject to health and safety regulations. This is NOT the issue. However, in NYC the Department of Health (DOH) regulates the curriculum of the day schools. THAT is the concern. For example, DOH tells pre-schools how much TV their children can watch. Which kind of teachers can teach.How much playtime that they have. Once you start regulating the CURRICULUM of religous schools it's a slippery slope.

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