Three Brooklyn yeshivas found in violation of state educational standards will be spared of any real consequences for now, a state judge has ruled in a lawsuit sparked by New York lawmakers’ recent changes to government oversight of religious schools.
Under a temporary restraining order issued last week, an Albany-based trial court judge, Justice Denise Hartman, paused the New York State Education Department’s final determinations — and their enforcement — against the ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools: Yeshiva Mosdos Chasidei Square Boro Park, Yeshiva Mosdos Chasidei Square of Williamsburg, and Yeshiva Torah V’Yirah Bais Rochel.
State education officials say the yeshivas had refused to cooperate with the government for nearly a decade, when the agency started cracking down on the quality of schools outside the public education system.
“They have expressed no intention of providing an instructional program that offers basic education in English language arts, math, science, or social studies,” said spokesman JP O’Hare. “This lawsuit, fueled by the 2025 budget amendments, will reward these bad faith actors, allowing them to collect federal and State money without any oversight.”
Several yeshivas have been reported to the Education Department for offering little secular instruction, leaving graduates unprepared to navigate the modern world as adults.
Earlier this year, six of them — which represent a tiny subset of Jewish day schools otherwise offering secular studies or engaging with the government — were notified that they effectively no longer held “school” status in the eyes of the law. Yeshiva leaders were told to have parents find other ways of educating their children to satisfy the state’s compulsory education law, while their schools were slated to lose public funds.
The ensuing outcry — the latest in a years-long debate in New York over the government’s role in regulating religious schools — prompted Gov. Hochul and the Legislature to sidestep the Education Department and give schools more ways and time to come into compliance. Those changes were adopted in May as part of the state budget.
The governor’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Education Department continued to quietly push back, court filings revealed. In memos to the yeshivas’ attorneys and the city’s public school system, officials insisted that because the final determinations pre-dated the change in law, the noncompliant yeshivas were ineligible to show they were following the updated law.
Steven Barshov, the yeshivas’ attorney, disagreed with the Education Department’s interpretation of the recent changes and asked the court to intervene.
“[Families who] have developed relationships with the yeshivas and staff that go for a number of years … are grateful to the court for issuing a temporary restraining order,” Barshov said, “and are hopeful the court will follow through with both a preliminary injunction and an ultimate ruling in their favor — because that gives them certainty.”
Meanwhile, yeshiva reform advocates blasted the order as hamstringing enforcement efforts.
“NYSED’s actions were a last resort after having exhausted all other efforts over the course of years, and are necessary to guarantee the right of children to a sound, basic education,” said Adina Mermelstein Konikoff, executive director of Young Advocates for Fair Education. “We cannot allow another generation of children to exit the school system without the skills they need to thrive in today’s world.”
