The Jewish Academy of Orlando is opening its doors to students of different faiths for the first time.

The change, effective in January, comes after repeated inquiries from non-Jewish parents and a vote by the school’s members to amend the bylaws and enroll non-Jewish students, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

The Jewish day school, where tuition ranges from $11,000 to $16,000 per year, has struggled to stay afloat after a drop in preschool attendance related to hoax bomb threats called into Jewish institutions across the United States last year, said Paul Lefton, spokesman for the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando.

The Jewish Academy, a fixture in the community for four decades, currently enrolls about 75 students after it eliminated its middle school program in 2016 and consolidated preschool through 5th-grade operations into one building. Parents and administrators believe the school’s 1-to-14 student-teacher ratio, use of technology, and character-focused curriculum will help draw in families of other faiths, the Sentinel reports.

Students recently studied Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, for example, and analyzed how it fits with the Jewish virtue of “kavod,” which means kindness and respect in Hebrew. Director of Academics Nikki Buyna said the school’s motto is “Go out and change the world,” based on the Jewish philosophy “tikkun olam” (“repair the world” in Hebrew), according to the news site.

“It’s not just academics,” Buyna said. “It’s also character.”

Jewish Academy alum Amanda Jacobson Nappi believes the move to open the school to families of different faiths will be a win for new students and the school. “I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for the school community to be able to take advantage of the program and the innovative learning the school has to offer while, at the same time, having diversity in the school, which is something we promote as part of our own learning,” she told the Sentinel.

Paul Bernstein, CEO of the Jewish day school organization Prizmah, told the news site that many Jewish schools have opened enrollment to now-Jewish students for a variety of reasons, from declining enrollment to a desire to share their faith with the community. “Families like the spiritual nature of faith-based schools even if it’s not your own faith—particularly if you are one of the monotheistic religions,” Bernstein said.

Bernstein’s comments seem to jibe with research conducted by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture that analyzed character formation in ten sectors of education—including Jewish, Islamic, Catholic, and Evangelical Protestant schools. The findings, published in The Content of their Character,  feature education researcher Charles Glenn’s observation that in Islamic schools, “Christian schools were spoken of approvingly and Christian organizations and parents seen as potential allies; students told us of making friends with students in Catholic and other faith-based schools, of volunteering at churches.”

Religious schools are compelling to families of other faiths—or those of no particular faith—in large part because of the emphasis on character and strong ethical traditions.

Prizmah, which works with about 350 Jewish day schools across the U.S., hosts an admission community of practice for schools like the Jewish Academy of Orlando to navigate the challenges of retaining a distinct school identity, and connecting with families who value that distinctive education.