Legal Issues for Public Independent School Districts on Undocumented Children Attending Schools:
It has always been a practice which allows undocumented children to attend public schools because a Supreme Court ruling in a 1982 case known as “Plyler v. Doe” ruled that undocumented children also have a constitutional right to receive free education in the independent public school systems in the US from kindergarten to high school (K-12). However, the Highest Court did not comment on some of the related legal issues that a public school district might have to deal with on a daily basis and very few such issues were ruled upon by any federal district courts either, leaving many complicated legal issues regarding the actual implementation of this ruling at the discretion of the HR or administrative personnel of the school districts with very little guideline to follow.
Yu, South & Associates is glad to inform you that there is now a general guideline you, as a public school administrator or HR director, can refer to in your daily management. This general guidance is a recent joint publication by the National Education Association and the National School Board Association titled “LEGAL ISSUES FOR SCHOOL DISTRICTS RELATED TO THE EDUCATION OF UNDOCUMENTED CHILDREN” and this 36-page handbook, based on the electronic copy Yu, South & Associates obtained, contains 13 sepcific questions and answers that outline the most commonly faced legal issues including school district’s responsibility in providing K-12 education to undocumented children under “Plyler” and the concerns over “harboring undocumented alien.”
Yu, South & Associates strongly recommend that all our client school district administrators or HR directors in charge of immigration related matters keep a handy copy of this small manual for ready reference when dealing with issues relating to providing education to undocumented children, including documented children in a unique legal status which might have prohibited them to attend schools in the US such as children in B-2 (tourist visa) status or children with a border crossing card from Mexico, for example.
If you have any further questions regarding this email or want to know more about this latest publication, please contact your attorney in charge of your District’s immigration cases at Yu, South & Associates or simply click here to send an email to:
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