The announcement of a new proposal by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to exempt religious school pre-school programs from “Article 47” regulations that govern the operation of day care programs in New York City was hailed by Agudath Israel of America.

The proposal was included in the Health Department’s revised version of Article 47, which was presented to the New York City Board of Health for preliminary approval this past Wednesday, October 24.  The proposed new Article 47 will now go out for public comment and be brought back to the Board for final approval.

As explained by Mrs. Deborah Zachai, Agudath Israel’s Director of Education Affairs, Article 47 currently exempts pre-school programs in yeshivos (and other elementary schools) from having to obtain a Health Department permit.  These programs are known as “NPR” – No Permit Required.  While NPR programs are technically subject to other regulations of Article 47 — such as teacher certification, student/teacher ratio, and per child square footage — the Health Department does not actively monitor compliance at religious school pre-school programs, rendering the NPR designation a “de facto” exemption from Health Department regulation.

All that was slated to change when, in March 2007, the Health Department presented the Board of Health with a proposed new version of Article 47, which would have done away with the NPR exemption and subjected religious school pre-school programs to the full brunt of Article 47’s extensive regulations.

Asked, back in February, to review and comment on a draft of that proposal, the Committee of Religious School Officials of the City of New York – which is chaired by Dr. Catherine Hickey of the New York Archdiocese and co-chaired by Agudath Israel’s Rabbi David Zwiebel – argued that kindergarten and pre-kindergarten classes attached to religious schools should be treated no differently from their public school counterparts, which were expressly exempted from the proposed regulations.

But the Health Department was not swayed by the argument, and went ahead with its March publication of a proposed new Article 47 that would fully cover religious school pre-school programs.  Compliance with these regulations would have placed a tremendous financial and administrative burden on yeshiva pre-school programs and would, in certain respects, have interfered with a yeshiva’s right to run its pre-school in accordance with its religious principles and educational objectives.

At a mid-April hearing conducted by the Board of Health, Rabbi Zwiebel cited the many difficulties the proposed regulations would create for New York City yeshivos and urged the Health Department to drop the plan requiring religious pre-schools to obtain a permit. Other Jewish advocates and representatives of other religious school communities raised similar concerns.

In the several months following the hearing, New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden and his top staff engaged in a series of meetings with a broad coalition of nonpublic school representatives – including, for the Jewish schools, Agudath Israel, the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York, United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, and the Sephardic Community Federation – to discuss the DOH’s proposed revision of the day care regulations.  Significant progress was made at these meetings, with the Health Department eventually agreeing to restore the NPR status and to limit its regulation over NPR programs to core health and safety requirements.

In a stunning development, however, the religious school representatives were informed earlier this month that the Health Department had decided to totally exempt religious pre-school programs from Article 47 regulations. Indeed, the agency’s newest proposal to the Board of Health, formerly presented this past Wednesday, expressly excludes from the definition of “child care service” any kindergarten or pre-kindergarten class that is part of any elementary school, whether public or nonpublic.

“This is extremely good news for yeshivos,” observes Rabbi Zwiebel. “Since all pre-school programs will now be entirely exempt from Article 47, there will no longer be any need for a yeshiva to apply for an NPR designation for its pre-school program.” Instead, he explains, the Health Department will treat such programs the same way they treat public school pre-school programs, which are regulated under Article 45 of the Health Code.  “This is precisely the position we had advocated back in February,” the Agudath Israel leader points out.  “It is gratifying that Commissioner Frieden and his staff finally came around to our point of view.”

It is the Health Department’s intent to revise Article 45, which establishes important and reasonable standards for health and safety in school-based pre-kindergarten programs, to require such programs to conduct staff clearance and maintain children’s health records.  These revisions are likely to be proposed early next year.

“While Agudath Israel will be monitoring the public comment process on the proposed new Article 47 and the revised version of Article 45,” says Rabbi Zwiebel, “for now it appears that the advocacy conducted over the past several months has yielded a successful outcome, which will result in children’s health and safety being protected without the imposition of burdensome, expensive and objectionable Health Department regulations.

“We owe a debt of gratitude to Commissioner Frieden and his staff for the tremendous sensitivity and flexibility they displayed throughout our discussions.  Thanks are also due to the Jewish organizational representatives who were involved in these discussions and to the principals, administrators and community activists who served on our internal ‘Article 47 Working Group’ in reviewing and commenting on the proposed regulations, and helping us map out strategy for our advocacy on this important issue.”