“We’re grateful to Commissioner Rosa and the Regents for the seriousness with which they considered this issue. Every child in New York State deserves a quality education, and our Catholic schools have always been more than happy to demonstrate that we are substantially equivalent to — and often exceed — public schools in the education we provide. We are particularly grateful that the Regents have come to a solution that allows multiple pathways to demonstrate substantial equivalency, without burdensome and potentially problematic reviews by local public school districts.

“We’re confident that all of the Catholic schools in the state will be deemed substantially equivalent under the new guidelines. Our tuition-paying families have already deemed us so for generations.”

The Catholic Conference represents Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the Bishops of New York State in public policy matters.