Latino Leaders Encourage Parents, Students and Educators to Learn About New Guidelines Clarifying Best Practices for Elementary and Secondary School Enrollment

Washington, D.C. -- The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA), a coalition of 37 of the nation’s preeminent Latino organizations, today announced its support for updated guidelines issued by the Department of Justice and Department of Education to ensure that all elementary and secondary schools provide equal access to education for everyone in this country, regardless of the immigration status of the student or the students’ parents. This development is welcomed, given that NHLA just held a press conference this past Tuesday calling for presidential and congressional action on immigration reform and releasing a report lifting up the fact that over 5.5 million children in the U.S. have a parent who is undocumented -- and 4.5 million of those children are U.S. citizens.

While the historic Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court ruling of 1982 declared that denying children an education based on immigration status “does not comport with fundamental conceptions of justice,” there have been troubling reports over the years of some school districts imposing barriers for enrolling undocumented students and children of immigrant families to receive the public education to which they are entitled. To provide school districts with the tools they need to abide by their federal obligations, the Department of Justice’s Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Education’s Secretary Arne Duncan yesterday expanded on guidelines issued by the two departments in 2011 to clarify acceptable school enrollment policies when it comes to how schools request data regarding students’ residency, age, social security number and race/ethnicity.

The guidelines also detail policies that may not be used by schools to deny enrollment to children in this country, noting that school districts may be in violation of federal law if they maintain policies that prohibit or discourage children from enrolling in schools because they or their parents/guardians are not U.S. citizens or are undocumented.

For example, the guidelines:
• Emphasize the need for flexibility in accepting documents from parents to prove a child’s age and to show that a child resides within a school’s attendance area.
• Provide specific examples of the types of documents that many schools have accepted.
• Remind schools that they may not require certain documents – such as a parent’s state-issued driver’s license – where such a requirement would prevent a student from enrolling because of his or her parent’s immigration status.

The Department of Education has provided the new guidance to all school districts across the country and the public can also access related materials online including:

• The Dear Colleague Letter (English pdf and Spanish pdf)
• A Fact Sheet (English pdf | Spanish pdf)
• Questions & Answers for States, School Districts, and Parents and Community Members (English pdf | Spanish pdf)
• The online Department of Education form to report complaints if you believe a school district is violating federal law http://www.ed.gov/ocr/complaintintro.html

In response to yesterday’s announcement, NHLA’s leaders issued the following responses:

"Children and families should not have to worry about revealing their immigration status -- or being racially profiled or discriminated against -- when it comes to something as important as registering for a public school. We applaud Attorney General Holder and Secretary Duncan for recognizing that schools can and must do more to enroll students in school through methods that will not jeopardize the safety of families and parents. We also encourage parents to know their rights and to feel safe when enrolling their children in America’s public schools,” said Hector Sanchez, NHLA chair, and Executive Director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA). “While the measures by DoJ and the Department of Education are a step forward, we also reiterate our call for the President and Republican leaders in the House of Representatives to do more to bring an end to the senseless deportations devastating Latino families and to bring forward a vote on a just and humane immigration reform bill this year."

"The 2014 Plyler v. Doe guidance documents, released by the Departments of Justice and Education to the nation’s schools, are a timely tool to help immigrant and mixed-status families enroll their kids into school in the Fall without dilemmas, drama, or delay," said James Ferg-Cadima, Washington regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). "

This trio of documents – released in English and translated into Spanish and Korean from day one – are carefully crafted to be understood and used by school officials, teachers, and parents alike, and to encourage districts to take affirmative steps to ensure the upcoming enrollment season is fair and flexible. The federal government’s 2014 Plyler guidance release is a welcome reminder, as we approach the sixtieth anniversary of Brown v. Board, that all school districts have civil rights obligations to our students, including those that are undocumented.”

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