Ithaca, NY – Today, Assemblymember Anna Kelles issued a formal statement expressing strong opposition to a provision in this year’s state budget that undermines the authority of the New York State Department of Education to ensure that all children receive a substantially equivalent education, regardless of the school they attend. Below is the statement she presented on the floor of the Assembly during the budget debate:

“As a former teacher and passionate defender of children’s rights and freedom, I am opposed and deeply concerned with the policy language that was added to this budget that undermines the ability of our Department of Education to ensure every child across the State achieves a basic level of instruction in both content and quality.

In current regulations, the State ensures that schools meet substantial equivalency in the quality of education they provide through oversight by the local school authority that is administering State law and regulations. The legislative language that was slipped into the budget completely removes the direct oversight of the local school authorities and therefore the State Education Department (SED) if the nonpublic school satisfies one of seven criteria.

The language eviscerates the integrity of the last two criteria by adding definitions into the law for what both “proficiency” and “year-end cumulative or summative assessment” means. This language defines proficiency as achieving a low 33rd percentile. The excuse is that this percentile is the same that is used for homeschooled students, but this is disingenuous. Under current homeschool regulations, this percentile is simply used for reporting purposes, and they are additionally held to quarterly report scrutiny. Families for children being homeschooled must also submit an Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP), which is reviewed and approved by the local school district. This comprehensive process ensures instructional quality, alignment with State standards, and regular engagement with local educators. In contrast, this substantial equivalency proposal that is now law strips away all accountability - offering no required review, no instructional plan, and no meaningful district oversight.

This law also allows nonpublic schools to use outdated student assessments that are NOT developed or approved by SED to ensure their education is substantially equivalent with public schools and aligned with State learning standards.

Currently, all nonpublic schools must meet substantial equivalency by June 30th of this year. In this budget the included language not only allows for an 8 year on-ramp for schools to meet substantial equivalency but by the way it is written, all students who are currently in any grade from 3rd to 12th will never be officially ensured that they are receiving an education that is substantially equivalent.

Further, allowing nonpublic schools to change which criteria they are using to meet substantial equivalency from year to year creates a ‘choose your own adventure’ to find which pathway at any point most likely achieves the school’s agenda for limiting any external oversight and significantly restricts the chance of tracking progress and growth for the students.

Lastly, as written, if one school among a group of schools that are officially affiliated meets the substantial equivalency then all the schools are automatically deemed to have met the criteria without going through any formal assessment.

This new law means that we cannot guarantee a student who is attending a nonpublic school that they will be getting an equal standard of education as that provided in every other school in the state.

According to Assemblymember Kelles this legislation was brought forward and aggressively championed by the Hasidic community. “While there are no yeshivas in the 125th Assembly district, passage of this bill will negatively impact the growth and opportunity of children in our state and that is every legislator’s responsibility. It is our job as a State to ensure that our children, no matter who they are or where they are or what culture they come from, can grow up to be whoever and whatever they want to be, and achieve all that their hearts desire and their minds dream to achieve. For this reason, I write this statement to both bring people’s attention to this new law and state my opposition to its inclusion in the budget.”