One of the focal points at a public hearing on Monday before the New York City Board of Health on the City Health Department’s proposed new child care regulations related to kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs operated by religious elementary schools.

The regulations, embodied in Article 47 of the New York City Health Code, impose detailed requirements upon all child care programs in the city. For many years, pre-school programs connected to religious elementary schools were exempt from having to obtain a formal permit under Article 47, and in fact received little regulatory oversight from the Health Department.  However, in March of this year, the Department proposed an overhaul of the Article 47 regulations that would have done away with the permit exemption and would have required religious school kindergarten and pre-K programs to undergo onerous regulation.

Last month, however, after months of extensive discussion with the city’s religious school representatives, the Health Department reconsidered its position and decided to entirely exempt religious school pre-school programs from Article 47 regulations.  Instead, the Health Department plans to regulate such programs under Article 45 of the Health Code – the same section of the Code that is binding upon public school pre-school programs – with the focus of such regulation only on certain core issues of basic health and safety.  Monday’s hearing was to garner comment on the proposed wording of the new Article 47 regulation to codify the Health Department’s decision.

At the hearing, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Agudath Israel of America’s vice president for government and public affairs, expressed deep gratitude to Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden and his staff for working with Agudath Israel and other religious school groups, and eventually coming to the realization that pre-school programs attached to private elementary schools “are most appropriately treated by the Department as schools and not as independent child care programs.”

“This is the correct approach,” said Rabbi Zwiebel, “for two broad reasons.

“First, it reflects the reality that pre-school programs attached to religiously-sponsored elementary schools are part and parcel of the larger elementary school educational experience, certainly no less so than pre-school programs attached to public schools.  Second, applying the full scope of Article 47 to pre-schools attached to religiously-sponsored elementary schools would impose an extraordinary financial and logistical burden on such programs – many of which are located in areas where space is at a premium, and where the population of children who require such services continues to grow at a rapid pace – thereby rendering it impossible to provide the type of affordable quality service that families in our communities have been receiving through these school-based programs.”

The Agudath Israel representative then offered several suggested changes to the proposed new regulation, to ensure that it indeed accomplishes what it was drafted to do.

One suggestion concerned wording that would have limited the religious pre-school exemption to such programs not only operating as “part of” an elementary school but also “located within” the school.  There are, Rabbi Zwiebel noted, “a number of elementary schools in our community which, for logistical and other reasons, operate their pre-school programs in different buildings.”  He suggested the problematic phrase be omitted from the regulation.  The Agudath Israel representative also suggested that in-formation elementary schools qualify as well as already established ones; and that an age requirement for students at exempted pre-schools be clarified in the language of the rule.

Others who testified at the public hearing in favor of the proposed new regulation’s exemption of religious school kindergarten and pre-K programs was Rabbi Moshe Dovid Niederman, president of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, and Dr. Paul Lynch, associate superintendent for government programs and public policy at the Archdiocese of New York.

“We treasure the spirit of good faith and mutual respect that has characterized our discussions with the Health Department…” Rabbi Zwiebel concluded.  “And we pledge our ongoing commitment to this important collaborative process.”