New York – Private School Fingerprinting Bill Stalled In NY

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    New York – With just over two weeks left in the current New York State legislative session, a bill that would require background checks and fingerprinting of all private school employees continues to languish in Albany.

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    No public hearings have been held on the bill, which was introduced this past February by Assemblyman Dov Hikind, and has yet to be voted on. The fingerprinting bill has no co-sponsor in the assembly and no sponsor in the state senate.

    Fingerprinting and background checks became mandatory for New York public school employees when Project SAVE was created in 2000, following the 1999 Columbine massacre. While several states, including California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan, require private schools to follow those same security measures, it is optional for New York state private schools as previously reported on VIN News. The only Jewish school in the state that requires its employees to undergo background checks and fingerprinting is the North Shore Hebrew Academy located in Great Neck and of all 1,900 private schools in New York, only nineteen employ these stricter security measures for screening their employees.

    With the number of abuse cases growing annually, Elliot Pasik, president of Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, calls the lack of action on the bill “inexplicable.”

    “It is a mystery why there has been no movement on this important piece of legislation,” Pasik told VIN News. “I don’t believe the issue here is a monetary one. I believe that with the vast amount of philanthropic funding available in the Jewish world, there are communal funds available to cover the cost of this project.”

    Instead, Pasik feels that the lack of support from the ultra-Orthodox sector, particularly the Agudah, is to blame for the lack of action.

    “I think that ideologically the Agudah does not want to be subject to government regulation,” said Pasik. “They have been completely silent on this issue and that is why no progress is being made.”

    Hikind has received letters of support for the fingerprinting bill from Ohel Children’s and Family Services, Rabbinical Council of America, Children’s Health Care Is a Legal Duty, Prevent Child Abuse New York, and The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the oldest child protection agency in the world, founded in 1875, but disagreed that there is a lack of action on the fingerprinting bill.

    “So much happens in the last three weeks of the legislative session, sometimes more than in the earlier five months,” explained Hikind. “We are working very hard to make the fingerprinting bill a reality but we don’t want to create a tremendous financial burden on the yeshivas, many of whom are already having difficulty just paying their teachers’ salaries.”

    According to Hikind, efforts are underway to introduce legislation that will allow private schools to use funding that is already in place for bookkeeping and other internal expenses for fingerprinting and background checks.

    “We are being realistic,” said Hikind. “This is a process that requires more than one step. Practically every yeshiva is behind on their bills. Right now we are concentrating on getting funding in place so that private schools will have the necessary funding for this program. Once we have accomplished that then we can finally work on getting this very important bill passed.”


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    12 Comments
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    11 years ago

    The facts here are not all true. Agudah has already publicized its support for the fingerprinting requirement. I am among those who do not care about what expenses yeshivas have to assume to do their jobs right, so the excuse of being unable to implement this due to funding falls on deaf ears.

    Are we all aware that the fingerprint records will have no benefit to the safety of our yeshiva environments? Are we also aware that the overwhelming majority of abuse involves those whose connection to the victims is via the family/home environments? I’m all in favor of accountability. But Agudah is not the problem here, and even if this bill passes, nothing substantial will be accomplished. There is much to do, and it is a shame the energies are being diverted to these nearly useless bits of legislation.

    Butterfly
    Butterfly
    11 years ago

    Thank goodness. Somebody is looking out for our children.

    woodmerejoe
    woodmerejoe
    11 years ago

    If the molesters are not reported to the police,what good will fingerprinting accomplish?

    admin
    Admin
    Member
    11 years ago

    Pasik is abosolutly not correct,

    It has recently become a moto ‘anyhting goes’ trowing mud against Agudath, and I urge VIN to carefully select when bashing Agudath to verify stories.

    I do understand some have isues with Agudath’s position of child abuse, and rightfully so, but on this issue of finger printing Pasik is totaly on the worng side of the issue against agudath

    see here
    http://forward.com/articles/141861/protecting-our-children/