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In a discussion concerning Special ed in yeshiva there were those who said that these children should be taught in public school. I said that they needed to be in yeshiva because need to have kosher food and there response was they don’t have to because they are pure and not obligated to do Mitvos and can’t be punish it makes no difference. This was in the coffee room in yeshiva world.
I don’t think anyone said anything like that.
This issue was analyzed by the Chasam Sofer in his tshuva, OH:83. I thought every yeshiva bochur knew that.
People were not debating if Special Ed kids should be eating non-kosher food, but rather if the secular NY or NJ government should be paying for it
By “special ed” do you mean children with conditions such as ADA and Down’s Syndrome or deafness or reading difficulties – or do you mean children who will never attain the intellectual abilities of a toddler. No one would argue that an educatable child in “special ed” is anyting but a normal child under halacha – our law is very broad and who is considered “normal” — under halacha one has to be very subnormal to be exempt from mitsvos in any way (and arguably any child so considered probably would not be included in “special education”). While calling someone a “shoteh” (fool) is a common insult, by halacha a “shoteh” is very serverely developmentally disabiled to the point of being largely uneducatable.
I suspect the original question may have been someone using “special education kids”, politely, to refer to someone incapble of every being able to function at more than the level of an infant — since anyone asking whether the normal sort of kids in special ed. (reading and behavior difficulties,mild develomental disabilities, etc.) would exempt them from mitsvos is obviously a “shoteh” (in the “insult” meaning of the work, not the halachic meaning).
That is a sad question in today’s ‘affluent’ society.
FYI
Most of the time the Arbitor does NOT side with the parents. Most school districts fight the parents and your only shot is if you higher a lawyer . And if you win you dont get the full amount, they usually deduct for Hebrew or Yiddish instruction.
In the case of East Ramapo, the school districts did not fight as hard as they do in the city. They fight hard in the city not to pay
Hmmm, that’s a very difficult and thought-provoking question. I’ll get back to you on that- I’m really not sure.
/endsarcasm
For what it’s worth, I always brought my own school lunch.
The answer to the question in the title is yes unless they are Jewish.
As a side note, the frum population in Monsey/Spring Valley has a lower percentage of special Ed kids than the general population does, I don’t recall the numbers off-hand.
My point is that all factors effecting the cost of special Ed should be considered, whether positively or negatively before throwing around numbers to the tune of “millions of dollars”. We are not such suckers…
Additionally, I don’t think the quality of the education for in house public school children with Down’s Syndrome is comparable to KJ UFSD, so we’re not exactly comparing apples to apples. KJ specializes while public schools are kind of the jack of all trades.
It doesnt take a day to settle with the Arbitor, it takes alot longer .
Bloomberg (and DiBlasio) have a policy of fighting every case of parents wanting the board of Ed for special ed in private school. So you dont win alot and many times they will settle so you get a portion instead of the whole amount.
Instead of posting things on the internet , why not ask people who actually work in the business (Like a Lawyer) and find out how hard the city is fighting Special ed tution fees. (Manhattan is the worse, the city hires really high priced attoryneys for that job)
The sad thing is all this litigation against parents is continuing despite some much lauded deal being reached with the city last year not to fight back as much.
We wimped out and instead of getting the law changed, agreed to trust the board of Ed on the Mayor’s say so.
Abba_S,
There is a case against East Ramapo right now on just that issue. But the reality is that East Ramapo wasn’t fighting the parents as hard because they calculated that it was cheaper for them to just give in (i.e. court costs plust public school were more than paying for KJ).
L’maysah East Ramapo has created a high quality special needs program within one of its public schools that has yiddish-speaking (i.e. frum) teachers.
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