Ed Dept. to Schools: You Must Teach All Students, Regardless Of Legal Status

National Journal

By Emily DeRuy

October 22, 2015

Ed Dept. to Schools: You Must Teach All Students, Regardless Of Legal Status

The Edu­ca­tion De­part­ment just is­sued a subtle re­mind­er to edu­cat­ors across the coun­try: Re­gard­less of cit­izen­ship or im­mig­ra­tion status, all stu­dents are leg­ally en­titled to edu­ca­tion in the United States.

Aimed at high school and col­lege stu­dents as well as edu­cat­ors, a new guide lays out in­form­a­tion about de­ferred ac­tion for child­hood ar­rivals (DACA), which of­fers some young people a tem­por­ary re­prieve from de­port­a­tion and opens ac­cess to some jobs and schol­ar­ships. The guide also out­lines which states al­low un­doc­u­mented col­lege stu­dents to ap­ply for fin­an­cial aid.

Right now, 65,000 un­doc­u­mented stu­dents gradu­ate high school each year, but only about 54 per­cent of all un­doc­u­mented young people have a high school dip­loma, com­pared to 82 per­cent of those born in the United States. The Edu­ca­tion De­part­ment es­tim­ates that 5 to 10 per­cent of un­doc­u­mented high school gradu­ates en­roll in col­lege. A frac­tion gradu­ate.

“That’s tra­gic,” John King, who will be­come act­ing edu­ca­tion sec­ret­ary at the end of the year, told Next Amer­ica. “We’ve got to fix that.” He hopes that the guide will help stu­dents and clear up any “mis­con­cep­tions,” and en­cour­age teach­ers and coun­selors to edu­cate stu­dents and their fam­il­ies about DACA re­new­al and the col­lege ap­plic­a­tion pro­cess. Some school sys­tems, in­clud­ing the Hemp­stead Uni­on Free School Dis­trict, have been in­vest­ig­ated for fail­ing to ad­equately edu­cate un­doc­u­mented stu­dents.

Right now, only about 54 percent of undocumented young people have a high school diploma, compared to 82 percent of those born in the U.S.

While the guide lists private schol­ar­ships and states that give fin­an­cial aid to un­doc­u­mented stu­dents, im­mig­rant act­iv­ists have raised con­cerns that these stu­dents are not eli­gible to re­ceive fed­er­al fin­an­cial aid. A Lu­mina Found­a­tion re­port on the bar­ri­ers to high­er edu­ca­tion that un­doc­u­mented stu­dents face calls on the de­part­ment to waive the cit­izen­ship or per­man­ent res­id­ency re­quire­ment of Pell Grants through an Ex­per­i­ment­al Sites Ini­ti­at­ive. The na­tion’s High­er Edu­ca­tion Act al­lows the edu­ca­tion sec­ret­ary to waive some reg­u­la­tions to study their ef­fect­ive­ness, which Edu­ca­tion Sec­ret­ary Arne Duncan used re­cently to give some pris­on­ers ac­cess to Pell grants.

When asked wheth­er the de­part­ment will con­sider such ac­tion, King de­murred, say­ing, “We would love to see Con­gress move on this is­sue.” Pro­ponents of com­pre­hens­ive im­mig­ra­tion re­form have said they would like to see ac­cess to aid built in­to im­mig­ra­tion re­form, but the chances of a plan clear­ing Con­gress any­time soon are slim.

But Sarah Aude­lo, policy dir­ect­or for Gen­er­a­tion Pro­gress, the youth arm of the left-lean­ing Cen­ter for Amer­ic­an Pro­gress, thinks the guide comes at an im­port­ant time. As the pres­id­en­tial elec­tion ramps up, Aude­lo hears a lot of “hate-mon­ger­ing” to­ward im­mig­rants. Texas and Ari­zona are among states that have sought to roll back rights for un­doc­u­mented stu­dents in re­cent years. Like King, Aude­lo called on law­makers to do more to aid un­doc­u­mented stu­dents. The Cen­ter for Amer­ic­an Pro­gress put out a schol­ar­ship guide for un­doc­u­mented stu­dents. It is one of the most viewed pages, she said.

While this new guide is geared to­ward older stu­dents, the Edu­ca­tion De­part­ment will re­lease sim­il­ar guides fo­cused on ele­ment­ary and early-child­hood edu­ca­tion in the com­ing months.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com