The phone calls come daily from distraught parents who can no longer afford their children’s education.

“It’s stressful, to say the least,” said Bathea James, head of Tehiyah  Day School in El Cerrito.

A Tehiyah Day School field trip to a Sonoma winery last Sukkot fascinated students Jacob Maler (left) and Ben Zell, holding a beaker.

The recession has meant layoffs or pay cuts for a number of families, which has meant that several cannot afford to finish paying their tuition bill for the current school year, James said.

Next year, the need is even more profound.

Sixteen more families than last year requested financial aid for the upcoming school year — $925,000 compared with $770,000 last year — which is a 20 percent increase in dollars requested and a demand James knew Tehiyah could not meet alone.

“I sit here every day having to speak to parents about the possibility their kids won’t come back in the fall,” she said. “And they tell me that when they talked to their kids, they were very upset and they weren’t sleeping.”

But those situations may turn around, thanks to a $3.5 million grant from the S.F.-based Jim Joseph Foundation, announced last week.

The grant will provide financial assistance over two years to parents with children enrolled in Jewish day schools, preschools and summer camps in the Bay Area.

Hearing about the grant “was like a load had been lifted,” James said.

“There’s absolutely no question this money will be so well received,” James added. “There’s such a need that if we had double the amount [of money] we could give it out.”

The Jim Joseph Foundation will provide an additional $7.5 million dollars to four other Jewish communities: Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Boston and Salem, Mass.

Federations in each city will decide how best to allocate the money, though those decisions have not yet been made. In the Bay Area, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation is administering the grant in partnership with the Bureau of Jewish Education, the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay and the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley.

The federations will determine how the money will be allocated in early April.

Interested families should contact their child’s school or camp for information about applying for financial aid.

“The reason this grant went to day schools and preschools and camping is that those are three things people will eliminate in a really down economy,” said Al Levitt, president of the foundation’s board. “A significant amount will probably go to day schools, since that’s where most of the damage is really occurring.”

Levitt said the foundation began talking in September about how the economy might affect Jewish education. But they felt it was too soon to make a determination of how to help.

In January, administrators contacted the foundation and explained just how badly the economy was hurting their schools. The foundation was compelled to assist, Levitt said.

“Education of Jewish children is the primary function of this foundation,” he said. “And I think we have a reputation of being a leader in this field.”

“The Jim Joseph Foundation is not just concerned about affordability of day schools, but also about their programmatic excellence,” said Mark Shinar, head of Oakland Hebrew Day School. “They asked: ‘How can we sustain that?’ And so they put dollars into it.”

Shinar said he’s grateful for the vision and support from the Jim Joseph Foundation.

This most recent grant, he said, will not only help parents who are struggling to afford tuition, but also the schools themselves, all of whom are struggling to raise enough money to provide financial aid for all families in need.

Shinar said, “We’ve been able to call our parents and say, ‘Hang tight, there’s been a windfall of miraculous dollars, don’t sign on the bottom line in the public school system just yet.’ ”

The Jim Joseph Foundation grant follows on the heels of the federation’s own recent action that provided Jewish preschools and day schools with $225,000 in scholarship grants that made it possible for 89 families in the federation’s service area to keep their children enrolled.