The new school year has started in Lakewood, New Jersey and more than 30,000 nonpublic school students came to school and discovered that there were no nurses on premises to deal with their
basic medical needs, no textbooks to help them learn, no remedial classes for those who require some extra help – despite the fact that by law, and by longstanding precedent, nonpublic school children in New Jersey are entitled to receive and have in fact received textbooks, remedial education and nursing services. It was especially disheartening to learn that nonpublic school students are being deprived of these services and benefits while their counterparts in the public schools are continuing to receive them. This selective withholding of benefits and services is unprecedented and unacceptable. We are also deeply dismayed by the fact that 150 special needs students who attend STARS have not yet begun school. The population of children with special educational needs should occupy a high place on the district’s hierarchy of priorities, and it is unconscionable that the school that services such children is precluded from opening its doors.
Agudath Israel urges that all necessary steps be taken to address these problems as quickly as possible. Each day that passes is a day in which those responsible for these denials are robbing our precious children of services they require and benefits to which they are entitled. This must stop.
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