The State Education Department recently notified a Brooklyn yeshiva that it had failed its substantial equivalency review. The State took that position even though it acknowledged that the English and Math instruction provided by the yeshiva was substantially equivalent. This continues the State Education Department’s record over the past year of refusing to acknowledge the success of yeshiva education. YWN readers will recall that the State Education Department implemented regulations of yeshivas in September 2022. Just weeks later, in October 2022, the State relied on those regulations to fail a different yeshiva that had been previously given a passing grade by the NYC Department of Education. Since then, the State Education Department has used those regulations against numerous yeshivas in New York.

A copy of the State Education Department’s recent letter can be reviewed below.