Michael Helfand Quoted in "A Court Ruling Has Transformed - And Limited - The Way New York State Can Regulate Yeshivas" -- Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Professor Michael A. Helfand is quoted in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency article, "A Court Ruling Has Transformed — And Limited — The Way New York State Can Regulate Yeshivas." The article considers a ruling in a New York State court that the state no longer has the power to effectively force yeshivas to close for not teaching secular studies in a way that is “substantially equivalent” to education in public school. According to the ruling, state law says it’s the responsibility of parents, not schools, to ensure that children receive a “substantially equivalent” secular education.

Excerpt from "A Court Ruling Has Transformed — And Limited — The Way New York State Can Regulate Yeshivas"

“It highlights and it notes that the statute itself requires parents to ensure that their children receive a substantially equivalent education, but it doesn’t impose an obligation on the schools to provide that,” said Michael Helfand, a scholar of religious law and religious liberty at Pepperdine University, explaining the ruling. “If that’s the case, there’s no authority under the statute to close the school because the school failed to provide a ‘substantially equivalent’ education.”

The complete article may be found at Jewish Telegraphic Agency