New York State guarantees each and every child under its jurisdiction a sound basic education. To meet this guarantee, its Education Law requires that private schools provide instruction at least substantially equivalent to that received in New York's public schools. Unfortunately, enforcement of this law was overlooked in the past, and a particularly acute problem has risen in the Haredi and Hasidic Jewish communities where many schools fail to provide adequate instruction in subjects like English, mathematics, science, social studies, or other subjects required by law.

YAFFED was founded in 2012 to bring awareness of, and advocate for solutions to this problem. In 2015 YAFFED filed a landmark complaint with the New York City Department of Education highlighting dozens of yeshivas it believes failed to provide basic education. In 2022, responding to YAFFED's work, the Commissioner of Education promulgated new regulations intended to clarify how private schools should be regulated. In 2023, YAFFED secured an order compelling the Department of Education to complete its investigation into the 2015 complaint, and by 2025 the new regulations require that school authorities provide the Commissioner with determinations or recommendations on whether each private school in their jurisdiction is meeting the substantial equivalency requirement.

YAFFED will need help reviewing these determinations, deciding on whether additional action should be taken, and then in bringing an administrative complaint where warranted.

YAFFED is attempting to build a network of attorneys willing to volunteer their time with reviewing, consulting on, and then representing YAFFED in an expectedly large number of administrative actions starting in 2025. YAFFED is trying to build this network ahead of time to allow for training and organizing. The administrative actions relate to private schools failing to provide the quality of instruction to their students that the law requires in New York.

1. Review determinations and recommendations made by Local School Authorities (LSAs) to New York State Education Department concerning whether certain Haredi and Hasidic yeshivas are providing an education at least substantially equivalent to that offered in New York's public schools.

2. Provide short memos to YAFFED (client) on the substance of each determination/recommendation.

3. Represent YAFFED in administrative proceedings before the Commissioner of New York State's Education Department.