Today, the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center-Teach NYS, along with partner organizations including Agudath Israel of America, Board of Jewish Education, Bobov Mosdos, Central UTA and United Jewish Organizations (UJO) of Williamsburg, met with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office and the NYC Department of Education (DOE) to discuss the mitigation of obstacles currently facing Yeshivos and Jewish Day Schools that wish to implement a Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) program.

A Request for Proposals (RFP) for schools and community-based organizations to participate in full-day UPK was released today. Schools that participate in the full-day UPK program—which is six hours and 20 minutes—will receive $10,000 per child enrolled in the program. The deadline for submission of the RFP for the full-day UPK program is Friday, May 16, 2014.

OU Advocacy-Teach NYS has been involved in the fight to obtain UPK services for all children since it was first proposed by Mayor de Blasio. During the New York State budget negotiations, OU Advocacy-Teach NYS facilitated a rally calling for inclusion of all private schools in UPK.

“We strongly encourage all yeshivos and day schools interested in implementing a UPK program to respond to the DOE’s RFP. While some details about the regulations are not yet finalized, any school that does not submit a proposal will not be eligible to receive funding,” said Jeff Leb, Director of OU Advocacy-Teach NYS. “We applaud Mayor de Blasio and the DOE for working together with our community to make the UPK program as successful as possible for all New York City children.”

The proposal can be found at http://bit.ly/UPKRFP.