Contact: Jane Lerner, Director of Strategic Communications
Office of the County Executive (845) 638-5645

Private school inspections a success, Rockland County Executive Ed Day says

NEW CITY, NY – As of 3 p.m. today, county fire inspectors have inspected 8 private schools as requested by the New York state Department of Education, Rockland County Executive Ed Day said.

The inspections will continue Wednesday morning.

"The work we have done is a great victory for all children in Rockland, who will now be attending schools in buildings that are safe," Day said.

If not for our advocacy, together with Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski, none of these schools would have been inspected for fire safety, he said.

"We are proud that we pushed this issue and improved safety for children and first responders," he said.

Gordon Wren, Rockland's director of Fire and Emergency Services, reports that yeshivas are contacting his office to set up times for inspections.

"We are hopeful that all 49 schools identified by the New York state Department of Education as needing fire inspections will have them performed," Day said.

The state asked Rockland County on May 18 to take over this responsibly because the town of Ramapo repeatedly failed to make sure these important inspections were done or conducted properly.

"The state Department of Education now informs us that it is accepting inspection reports done by Ramapo inspectors," he said. "These schools have been removed by the state from the list originally supplied so we are no longer authorized to inspect them."

We will continue to inspect private schools as allowed by law and the New York state Department of Education.