AP Exclusive: Schools Are Discouraging Migrant Children From Enrolling

AP: Schools Have Discouraged “Hundreds Of Unaccompanied Minors” From Enrolling. The Associated Press reported May 2 that “in at least 35 districts in 14 states, hundreds of unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have been discouraged from enrolling in schools or pressured into … separate but unequal alternative programs” that don't guarantee academic success. The AP noted that under a 1982 Supreme Court ruling, “states cannot deny children a free public education, regardless of immigration status”:

The Associated Press has found that in at least 35 districts in 14 states, hundreds of unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have been discouraged from enrolling in schools or pressured into what advocates and attorneys argue are separate but unequal alternative programs — essentially an academic dead end, and one that can violate federal law.

[...]

America's schools remain one of the few government institutions where migrant youth are guaranteed services, but the federal government has extended little money or oversight to monitor whether that happens, in part because schools are locally governed.

Since fall 2013, the federal government has placed nearly 104,000 unaccompanied minors with adult sponsors in communities nationwide, where they are expected to attend school while they seek legal status in immigration court. Months later, during the dramatic surge of illegal crossings at the border, the Education and Justice departments issued joint guidance reminding districts that a 1982 Supreme Court ruling established that states cannot deny children a free public education, regardless of immigration status.

Districts found to have broken the law can be forced to change their enrollment policies, but making that happen is not easy. To start, few migrant children understand their rights.

[...]

[T]he AP analyzed federal data to identify areas where the number of migrant children was relatively large when compared to public school enrollment, along with the number of students formally learning English. In Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina, social workers and attorneys told AP that migrant students have been barred from enrolling, kept out of class for months due to elaborate paperwork requirements or routed to reform schools and adult programs. The full extent of how the Central American minors are faring in schools is unknown because the government does not release data on counties where fewer than 50 minors have been placed, which means information was not provided for about 25,000 of the migrants. Some examples of where AP found unaccompanied youths facing educational barriers:

—Case managers said schools in Florida's Miami-Dade County had routed teens as young as 16 to adult schools, where they can take only English as a Second Language classes. Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokesman John Schuster said registration in the adult program was optional, and could include GED prep.

—City officials in Lynn, Massachusetts, suggested two Central American teens were lying about their age to get into high school in summer 2014. Since then, dozens of unaccompanied minors have been sent to alternative newcomers programs, where they studied English and other material but received no credit. The district declined comment.

— About 50 unaccompanied minors were denied access or routed into alternative, non-degree bearing programs in Hempstead and Westbury, on New York's Long Island. A settlement was announced in March requiring the Westbury district to improve enrollment policies and provide students comprehensive instruction. [Associated Press, 5/2/16]

Right-Wing Media Have Long Criticized The U.S.’s Practice Of Allowing Immigrant Students To Attend School

Fox Guest: It Is “Tragic On So Many Levels” For U.S. To Educate Undocumented Immigrant Children. On the August 12, 2014, edition of Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto invited conservative talk show host Gina Loudon on to criticize policies allowing undocumented immigrant children to receive a public education. Loudon claimed it was “tragic on so many levels” for the U.S. to educate undocumented children, adding that without criminal background checks and health screenings, schools won't know “if this student is a murderer” or “has one of the diseases that we're hearing about coming across the border.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 8/12/14]

Tucker Carlson: “But What About The Rights Of The​ Kids Who Are Born Here?” On the August 11, 2014, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, guest Francisco Negron pointed out that public schools have a legal obligation to educate “all children, including migrant or immigrant children, regardless of their legal status.” Co-host Tucker Carlson asked “about the rights of the kids who ​are born here, the American citizens who presumably have the right to a decent education and aren't getting one because of this”:

ELISABETH HASSELBECK (HOST)​: Well, school systems across the country are bracing for as many as 50,000 illegal immigrant children to flood their schools in just a matter of weeks.

[...]

FRANCISCO NEGRON​: Well, the first thing to keep in mind is that public schools all across the country are keenly aware that they have a legal obligation to educate all children, including migrant or immigrant children, regardless of their legal status. But having said that, I think the new challenge for schools, now, has to do with the number of children that are coming over without parents or guardians. So it's this unaccompanied status that really is a concern for public schools.

​TUCKER ​CARLSON (HOST)​: So you say that they have an obligation. It's the federal law, right, that they have to educate kids who show up here illegally? But what about the rights of the kids who a​re born here, the American citizens who presumably have a right to a decent education​,​and aren't getting one because of this? [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 8/12/14]

Radio Host Mark Levin: U.S. Scoring Lower In Global Education Survey Because Migrant Children “Come In, They Pour Into Many Of Our School Systems.” On December 4, 2013, conservative radio host Mark Levin blamed undocumented immigrants for the United States' poor ranking in a global education survey of high school students, claiming that “one of the reasons” for the mediocre showing on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is that “a lot of these children only speak Spanish and a certain percentage of them are illiterate in Spanish because they're poor when they come over the border”:​

MARK LEVIN: But a lot of these children only speak Spanish and a certain percentage of them are illiterate in Spanish because they're poor when they come over the border. In many respects, they're uneducated. So they come in, they pour into many of our school systems into our public schools. And so reading and science and mathematics -- isn't it at least conceivable that's one of the reasons why our numbers have dropped and continue to drop? I think the answer is obviously yes. But nobody will say it except me, and these groups certainly won't report on it. [Cumulus Media Networks’, The Mark Levin Show, via Media Matters, 12/4/13]

Iowa Radio Host Jan Mickelson: Providing For​ Undocumented Students' Education Is “A Scam.” ​On his February 19, 2015, radio show, ​Jan Mickelson criticized the Iowa Farm Bureau for wanting to raise the gas tax, alleging that the state could instead save money by not funding the education of​ undocumented students.​ Mickelson called providing education to migrant children a “scam” and claimed that there is no “mandate” requiring school districts to spend money educating undocumented children. [ WHO, Mickelson In The Morning, 2/19/15]

Barring Migrant Immigrant Children From Accessing Education Is Unconstitutional, Illegal, And Has Negative Consequences

Center For American Progress: Immigrant Children Do Not Burden School System As They Amount To “Just Over One-Tenth O​f 1% Of All Public School Children.” According to a 2014 study by the Center for American Progress, “if every child refugee who has arrived” in the U.S. by the end of July 2014 enrolled in a public school system, the 50.1 million public school student population would increase by only 0.13 percent:

[Center for American Progress, 8/8/14]

American Immigration Council: Supreme Court Guaranteed Undocumented Immigrant Children Equal Access To Education Under The 14th Amendment In Plyl​er v. Doe. In 1982​, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “states cannot constitutionally deny students a free public education on account of their immigration status … given the harm the policy would inflict on the children themselves and society as a whole:”

The Court based its ruling on the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which says in part, “No State shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” (This provision is commonly known as the “Equal Protection Clause.”) Under this provision, the Court held that if states provide a free public education to U.S. citizens and lawfully present foreign-born children, they cannot deny such an education to undocumented children without “showing that it furthers some substantial state interest.”

The Court found that the school district had no rational basis to deny children a public education based on their immigration status, given the harm the policy would inflict on the children themselves and society as a whole. “By denying these children a basic education,” the Court said, “we deny them the ability to live within the structure of our civic institutions, and foreclose any realistic possibility that they will contribute in even the smallest way to the progress of our Nation.” The Court also said that holding children accountable for their parents' actions “does not comport with fundamental conceptions of justice.” [American Immigration Council, 6/15/12]

Joint Letter From Department Of Justice And Department Of Education: Preventing Undocumented Students From Enrolling “May Be In Violation” Of Title VI. According to a March 8, 2014, joint letter by the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964reinforces the Supreme Court's resolution in Plyler v. Doe. Therefore, schools putting up barriers to prevent undocumented students from enrolling “may be in violation of Federal law” (emphasis added and citations removed):

The Departments enforce numerous statutes that prohibit discrimination, including Titles IV and VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title IV prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin, among other factors, by public elementary and secondary schools. Title VI prohibits discrimination by recipients of Federal financial assistance on the basis of race, color, or national origin. Title VI regulations, moreover, prohibit districts from unjustifiably utilizing criteria or methods of administration that have the effect of subjecting individuals to discrimination because of their race, color, or national origin, or have the effect of defeating or substantially impairing accomplishment of the objectives of a program for individuals of a particular race, color, or national origin. [Department of Justice and Department of Education, 5/8/14]

Former Attorney General Eric Holder: Policies Barring Immigrant Children From Schools “Weaken Our Nation.” During a May 8, 2014, conference call with reporters, former Attorney General Eric Holder said of school district policies that circumvent federal law by raising barriers to migrant student enrollment (emphasis added):

“We have continued to hear troubling reports of actions being taken by school districts around the country that have a chilling effect on student enrollment, raising barriers for undocumented children and children from immigrant families who seek to receive the public education to which they are entitled,” Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters in a conference call on Thursday.

“Such actions and policies not only harm innocent children,” he continued, “they also markedly weaken our nation — as the court recognized in Plyler — 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.” [Huffington Post, 5/8/14]