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NYS Slow To Amend Policies That Impede Immigrant Student Enrollment in Public Schools

Posted August 16, 2010 by Samantha Fredrickson, Esq.

As the immigrant population continues to increase on Long Island and across the state, it’s vital that immigrant children are afforded equal opportunities for education. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that all children, regardless of their immigration status, have an equal right of access to a public education.

So when the New York Civil Liberties Union learned that at least 139 of New York’s 694 school districts were setting up enrollment barriers for immigrant children—21 of them on Long Island—we knew we had to do something about it.

We’d been asking the New York State Education Department for nearly a year to address the problem, but they have consistently turned a blind eye to the problem. So, last month we made the situation public, sent the state one more letter (four in total) and contacted all 139 individual school districts to provide guidance about the law.

Of the 21 problematic Long Island schools, 9 of them are in Nassau and 12 in Suffolk. Some of the Long Island schools, such as the Valley Stream Union Free School District, specifically ask if the student is a US citizen. North Bellmore School District even asks for the citizenship of the parents. Great Neck School District requires a passport for children not born in the United States, even though under the law it first has to ask for the child’s birth certificate. All of these requirements serve as a barrier for many immigrant children.

The response from the school districts so far has been warming. While some of the offending districts undoubtedly want to exclude immigrant children, the school districts we’ve heard from had no idea that they were discriminating. Many, for example, required children to provide Social Security numbers without realizing that undocumented children are ineligible for them and therefore unable to register. These districts have immediately amended their policies to avoid any issues.

Sadly, the state has been much slower to respond. Though the New York State Education Department issued a press statement saying it would send districts a directive on the matter, we have yet to hear from the state ourselves and have no details about what the directive will say. That’s far from satisfactory. The Supreme Court ruled on this issue 28 years ago. The state must finally comply with the spirit of the law.

We may never know how many children have been denied or discouraged from an education. The percentage of foreign-born children on Long Island is going to continue to increase and immigrant children are going to be leaders on Long Island one day. They will be our neighbors and our friends, our doctors and our teachers. And as our suburban enclave becomes more and more diverse, we must ensure that our future leaders are given equal opportunities.

Samantha Fredrickson, Esq., is the director of the Nassau County chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Image courtesy of House of Sims via Flickr.

Here’s a list of Long Island schools that had been setting up enrollment barriers for immigrant students:
Nassau

VALLEY STREAM 13 UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT

NEW HYDE PARK-GARDEN CITY PARK UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT

MALVERNE UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT

LYNBROOK UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT

ISLAND TREES UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT

GREAT NECK UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT

NORTH BELLMORE UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT

EAST MEADOW UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT

PLAINEDGE UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT

Suffolk

SAGAPONACK COMMON SCHOOL DISTRICT

ROCKY POINT UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT

MATTITUCK-CUTCHOGUE UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT