A second petition has been filed with the Supreme Court against new regulations for the 2026-2027 school year that deny daycare and family daycare subsidies to families in which the father has not regularized his military service status with the IDF.
The petitioners are requesting that the new requirement be abolished entirely or, alternatively, that a transition period be introduced to allow families to prepare for the financial changes.
Under the new subsidy eligibility criteria, if either parent is classified as a draft evader, a military deserter, or someone who has received an order under Section 12 of the Defense Service Law, the entire family becomes ineligible for subsidies.
Unlike previous restrictions, which focused on subsidy programs linked to yeshiva studies, the new condition applies to all subsidy categories, including families in which the mother is employed and meets all employment-related eligibility requirements.
One of the central arguments in the petition, filed by the Emet L'Yaakov B'Yisrael organization through attorney Yitzhak Bam, concerns the timing of the new guidelines' publication: The school year in haredi daycare centers began on August 14, while the updated subsidy eligibility criteria were published only later that month.
According to the petitioners, families that had already enrolled their children and committed to payments now face the changes without an opportunity to adjust.
The petition also cites a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that determined that changes to daycare subsidy policies require an adequate transition period because families rely on existing arrangements when making financial commitments.
The petition further argues that imposing financial sanctions through daycare subsidies directly harms young children and working mothers, and that professional officials within the Labor Ministry had themselves warned of the expected negative impact on the integration of haredi women into the workforce.
Supreme Court Justice Yechiel Kasher ordered the state to submit a preliminary response to the petition within 30 days. However, no interim injunction has been issued to suspend implementation of the new guidelines. As a result, the subsidy restrictions remain in effect pending a judicial decision.