District for Hasidic Students Ruled Unconstitutional

By Mark Walsh

A special public-school district sot up to serve students with disabilities from a Hasidic Jewish village in New York State represents an unconstitutional government establishment of religion, a state judge has ruled.

The school district was formed by the New York legislature in 1989 to serve special-education students in the village of Kiryas Joel, a strictly Orthodox Jewish enclave of 11,000 people about 35 miles northwest of New York City.

Although the sect has two private religious schools that serve most students, Kiryas Joel residents say they cannot afford to educate their disabled children privately. At the same time, parents have refused to send pupils with disabilities to nearby public schools because they do not want them...