New York officials increase security funds for nonpublic schools

NEW YORK (PIX11) — With the school year kicking off this week, for a lot of parents, safety is top of mind.

To deal with that, some nonpublic schools in New York will see increased security funding from the state.

New York State Senator Michael Gianaris says that following the events of October 7, students across the state have faced increased levels of hate. “We’ve seen the world has gotten much smaller so when something happens across the world we feel it here in New York,” said Gianaris.

That’s why along with Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi, he successfully pushed to increase security funding for religious and independent schools.

The state’s Nonpublic School Safety Equipment grants for this year have increased from $45 to $70 million.

“This is a program that has been in place and is working but is too small given the need we have given the increase in hate crimes,” said Gianaris.

According to the NYPD, hate crimes in the city alone are up nearly 18% year to date compared to the same period last year.

Syndey Altfield is with Teach NYS, a nonprofit group that advocates for safe education for nonpublic school students. The Jewish organization partnered with other religious groups to push for the increase.

“This funding is going a long way not only to bolster security like cameras but also the physicality of a guard in front of the school.”

“We need to make sure all students are safe and unfortunately the targets are the religious institutions where we see hate crimes being perpetrated against.”

Gianaris agrees and says these students deserve to be protected by the state.

“We have a reason to believe there is danger at these schools so providing a relatively modest sum compared to many billions of dollars we provide to public schools to make sure our Muslim and Jewish students are safe seemed like a good idea.”

The funding is available in the form of reimbursements for expenditures.

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