Cuomo Vetoes Special Ed Bill Backed by Orthodox
Gov. Andrew Cuomo Image by getty images
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoed a bill that would have made it easier for religious students with special needs to receive tuition reimbursements for attending private schools.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo Image by getty images
Special needs students may currently receive a tuition reimbursement if their local public schools do not provide the services they need, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal. Parents must apply for the reimbursement every year, and show why the public school is inappropriate for the child, as well as why the chosen private school is appropriate.
The bill, vetoed on Tuesday, would have required reapplication for the reimbursement only when students’ needs change, not annually. The bill would have required schools to consider “the school environment” versus the student’s “home environment and family background.”
Haredi Orthodox Jews, as well as Catholics, backed the bill.
According to the Journal, Leah Steinberg, special education affairs director for the haredi Agudath Israel of America, called the bill “compassionate.”
Cuomo called it “an overly broad and ambiguous mandate” in a statement.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
