In a “Dear Colleague” letter, the US Department of Justice and the Department of Education told schools they have to “provide all children with equal access to public education at the elementary and secondary level.”
That includes students whose parents of guardians may be perceived as undocumented immigrants, and the urging on behalf of the Office of the General Counsel and the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education and the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department is a reiteration of practices encouraged in a similar letter from 2011.
“Recently, we have 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. These practices contravene Federal law,” the administration wrote.
The letter’s attachments provide considerable detail about the kinds of practices the departments worry about. The first piece of advice says schools shouldn’t ever ask about a student’s status as an undocumented immigrant. “Immigration or citizenship status is not relevant to establishing residency in the district, and inquiring about it in the context of establishing residency is unnecessary and may have a chilling or a discouraging effect on student enrollment,” they wrote.
“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,” Politico quoted Attorney General Eric Holder as saying in a statement. “The Justice Department will do everything it can to make sure schools meet this obligation. We will vigilantly enforce the law to ensure the schoolhouse door remains open to all.”
The letter suggests that although schools might not specifically prevent undocumented immigrants from enrolling, their policies often do make those children afraid to enroll or even approach public school officials.
Practices that discourage undocumented immigrants from enrolling in the public schools don’t just harm innocent children. “They also markedly weaken our nation … by leaving young people unprepared and ill-equipped to succeed and contribute to what is, in many cases, the only home they have ever known,” USA Today quoted Mr Holder as saying in a statement.
Some legal experts, though, say school districts are generally acting in good faith and simply don’t know what sorts of documentation they can request, NPR reports. For example, schools can ask for a copy of a utility bill in order to verify that a student’s residence is within the boundaries served by the district. But although they can ask for a student’s Social Security number, they have to mention that it’s voluntary if they do.
Relevant Supreme Court precedent
In Phyler v Doe (1982), the high court struck down a state statute denying funding for education to illegal immigrant children and simultaneously struck down a municipal school district’s attempt to charge illegal immigrants an annual $1,000 tuition fee for each illegal immigrant student to compensate for lost state money.
