Security guard reimbursements paid to Queens yeshivos over the past month are bringing financial relief to schools grappling with the growing expense of protecting their students and staff. New York City reimbursement records provide a school-by-school account of public funding across the borough, while a recent study shows that security costs at participating New York Jewish schools have nearly doubled in three years.
Unlike an upfront grant, the city’s Nonpublic School Security Guard Reimbursement Program repays schools for approved expenses they have already paid. Even so, the program, administered by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), provides an important measure of relief.
City records for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 show how that assistance has reached individual Queens institutions.
Queens institutions receiving funding included Bais Yaakov Academy for Girls, Yeshiva Sha’arei Zion, Bnos Malka Academy, Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe, Yeshiva of Central Queens, Yeshiva Ketana of Queens, The Cheder Early Childhood in Forest Hills, Queens Hebrew Academy (formerly Solomon Schechter), Jewish Institute of Queens, and Be’er Hagolah Institute High School. In Far Rockaway, recipients included Yeshiva Darchei Torah, Bnos Bais Yaakov, and Torah Academy for Girls’ high school and elementary divisions.
These payments cover eligible security guards, not the full cost of protecting each school.
The financial pressure behind those payments was documented in a March 2026 study by Teach Coalition, an initiative of the Orthodox Union. Among 25 participating New York schools, average annual security spending reached $538,853 during the 2025–2026 academic year, a 95 percent increase over 2022–2023.
The broader study surveyed 63 Jewish schools across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Average annual security expenditures climbed 124 percent, from $179,467 to $401,432, while spending on other school needs rose 19 percent. Security personnel accounted for 63 percent of expenses among respondents in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, followed by building improvements and protective equipment.
Smaller schools face especially steep costs. Among institutions enrolling fewer than 100 students, security averaged $2,640 per child annually, compared with $539 at schools enrolling more than 1,000. A smaller enrollment does not eliminate the need for guards, secure entrances, and emergency preparations; it simply leaves fewer families to share the expense.
Parents are increasingly helping shoulder that burden. The study found that 59 percent of surveyed students attended schools charging a separate security fee, up from 48 percent three years earlier. Including schools that raised tuition specifically to meet security expenses, 78 percent of students faced one of these additional charges.
Sydney Altfield, CEO of Teach Coalition, has urged greater public responsibility for protecting Jewish institutions. “Security cannot be a burden Jewish communities are expected to shoulder alone,” she wrote in a public statement shared on LinkedIn.
New York City has broadened access to its reimbursement program by lowering the minimum qualifying enrollment from 300 to 150 students. Approved schools with 150 to 499 students may receive reimbursement for one guard, with additional guards covered as enrollment increases.
Even with that assistance, schools must finance protective measures beyond the program’s scope, including surveillance cameras, reinforced entrances, access controls, and communications equipment.
The strain extends beyond schools. A UJA-Federation of New York Community Security Initiative survey of 39 Jewish institutions found that median annual security spending rose from $50,000 before October 7, 2023, to $152,470 afterward, reflecting the broader financial demands facing Jewish communal organizations.
For Queens yeshivos, the recent reimbursements offer some welcome relief. Protecting talmidim is indispensable, but every additional security expense places further pressure on school budgets and the families supporting them.
By Shabsie Saphirstein
