Copyright 1992 The New York Times Company  
The New York Times
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January 23, 1992, Thursday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section B; Page 6; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk

LENGTH: 681 words

HEADLINE: Hasidic Public School District Is Unconstitutional, Judge Rules

BYLINE: By SARAH LYALL,  Special to The New York Times

DATELINE: ALBANY, Jan. 22

BODY:
A special public school district in a Hasidic community in Orange County was established in violation of the constitutional separation of church and state, a State Supreme Court judge ruled today.

The school district, which provides bilingual classes in English and Yiddish for 138 severely disabled children in the Hasidic enclave of Kiryas Joel, was formed in 1989 after many parents in the community refused to send their children to local public schools.

Community leaders vowed to appeal the ruling. They said students in the Kiryas Joel Union Free School District had the same rights as children in the rest of the state. But in his decision, Justice Lawrence E. Kahn said the legislation establishing the district was a clear case of the government supporting religion in violation of the Constitution.

"The statute, rather than serving a legitimate governmental end, was enacted to meet exclusive religious needs and has the effect of advancing, protecting and fostering the religious beliefs of the inhabitants of the school district," he wrote.
 
Plan Is in Disarray

The New York State School Boards Association, which brought the lawsuit, called the decision a resounding endorsement of the principle that public money should not be used to support religion. "We happen to feel that this is one of the most important constitutional decisions in the last decade," said Louis Grumet, the group's executive director.

The ruling throws into disarray Kiryas Joel's carefully crafted plan to educate its disabled children. Made up entirely of Satmar Hasidim, ultra-Orthodox Jews who adhere to strict dress codes and generally shun outsiders, the community, about 35 miles northwest of New York City, educates its 4,000 or so non-disabled children at a large parochial school where boys are separated from girls and the emphasis is on religious instruction.

But special education is far more expensive, and the community said it could not afford to educate its disabled children privately. It balked at sending them to the public schools in the nearest district, the Monroe-Woodbury Central School District, saying that it did not want them exposed to outside influences.

To deal with the situation, the State Legislature passed, and Gov. Mario M. Cuomo signed, a bill establishing a special district for Kiryas Joel's handicapped children. The district, which has one school building, is run by Steven Benardo, a former superintendent for special education in the Bronx. It is forbidden to teach or endorse religion, even though all its students are members of the Satmar community.
 
An Unwanted Precedent

If it is upheld, the ruling will effectively close the school, leaving the children to find an education elsewhere. The school district and the state also vowed to appeal, saying the children were being denied the right to a public education.

"The school provides for the children who live in Kiryas Joel the same education and the same provisions for the handicapped as the children outside Kiryas Joel," said Nathan Lewin, the lawyer for the school district. "Forming the school district was simply a permissible accommodation, like drawing any other school district line would be."

But Mr. Grumet of the School Boards Association said that if the school district had prevailed, it would have encouraged other religious groups around the country to set up their own school districts where their children could be educated separately.

"This was no school district -- this was a private school," Mr. Grumet said.

In his opinion, Justice Kahn seemed to agree. "The intent of the Legislature and Executive to be responsive to the citizens of Kiryas Joel is laudatory and reflects the political process straining to meet the needs of a religious group," he wrote. However, he cautioned, the legislation, if it were allowed to stand, would chip away at the First Amendment, even as it applied to the members of Kiryas Joel.

"This short-range accomplishment could in the long run jeopardize the very religious freedom that they now enjoy," he said.

LOAD-DATE: January 23, 1992