De Blasio Not Worried About UPK in Religious Schools

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio attempted to quell any doubts that religious schools could comply with the strict guidelines the city has set for the extension of the typical preschool school day, a controversial topic in the Orthodox Jewish community. 

"Our program is six hours and twenty minutes," de Blasio said. "That is the standard—and so the rules of the road here for any organization, a community based organization, a charter school, a Catholic school, yeshiva, everyone understands one standard: six hours and twenty minutes."

As City & State previously reported, there are palpable concerns within the Orthodox Jewish community and among education observers that some yeshivas and Jewish community based organizations would struggle greatly to incorporate a completely secular program as mandated by the administration. Many of the Jewish-affiliated UPK schools are open about teaching the values of Jewish Law or incorporate the Torah heavily into their curriculum. 

Chief among the concerns in the Orthodox community is the administration's insistence on increasing the preschool day from five hours to six hours and twenty minute. Jewish education advocates say that the extra time creates an even bigger obstacle for schools to structure the non-secular components of their programs—such as blessings, prayers and any form of religious instruction.

Despite multiple sources indicating that the mayor's office was still negotiating the additional time with some of the UPK schools, de Blasio's firm remarks suggest otherwise. The mayor added that the Department of Education had worked with religious schools before on Head Start programs with a clear standard for a secular curriculum, and was confident that the agency could sufficiently monitor these schools for compliance.

"There is lots of quality control, there is lots of monitoring," he said. "If a school doesn’t make that separation, they won’t be allowed to continue in the program. But we think that the schools we have talked to understand that that is how this works and they are going to follow these rules."