Government To Public Schools: You Can’t Keep Undocumented Immigrants Out Of School

By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee

School districts may not use immigration status to deny enrollment, the Justice and Education Departments reminded schools in a set of updated guidelines released Thursday. In a letter to schools, Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder said that they had “become aware of student enrollment practices that may chill or discourage the participation, or lead to the exclusion, of students based on their or their parents’ or guardians’ actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status.”

The guidelines come in response to a number of reports that schools are denying undocumented immigrants entrance on questionable grounds. Undocumented parents living in Butler County, New Jersey were unable to enroll their kindergarten-age children in school because the Butler Public School District had a policy requiring parents to provide state- or county-issued photo identification, a document that requires a social security number and valid immigration status, leading the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to file a lawsuit in March. The ACLU also found that 138 New Jersey school districts asked for documents that indicated immigration status.

Two undocumented children in two separate North Carolina school districts were denied enrollment because officials told them that at the age of 17, they were “too old” even though students under the age of 21 are entitled to a public education in North Carolina. One of the students was finally allowed to attend a high school after the person administrating his English as a Second Language exam helped him submit an enrollment application.

Holder said in the press release, “Public school districts have an obligation to enroll students regardless of immigration status and without discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin … We will vigilantly enforce the law to ensure the schoolhouse door remains open to all.”

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http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/05/08/3435733/doe-school-reminder-undocumented/