Earlier this week, the New York City Department of Education informed numerous yeshivos and Jewish day schools in New York City that their applications to become half-day UPK (Universal Pre-Kindergarten) providers for the 2015-16 school year have been approved. The awarding of these contracts translates into close to 5000 half-day pre-kindergarten seats for New York City Jewish schools.
In welcoming the development, Mrs. Deborah Zachai, Agudath Israel of America’s director of education affairs, stated that “although the awards are being made very close to the start of the new school year, we are hopeful that schools will be able to have their half-day UPK programs up-and-running in a timely fashion – and that in coming years the implementation of half-day UPK programming will be seamless.”
Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Agudath Israel’s executive vice president, noted that “when Mayor de Blasio originally rolled out his signature UPK initiative, he made it clear that his vision for young children was a full-day 6 hour and 20 minute program of secular instruction, leaving little or no time for religious instruction. But then it became apparent that the full-day approach would not work for many of the Jewish schools, and that the only way they could participate in UPK programming would be through a half-day program.
“The Mayor is to be congratulated for maintaining the half-day option despite his own preference for full-day programming. The flexibility is essential, and will enable many additional thousands of children to benefit from UPK service.”