Bilingual & Immigrant Education

With certain changes in federal welfare and immigration laws due to kick in this week, rumors have swirled through San Francisco's immigrant community that illegal-immigrant children would no longer be welcome in public schools.

In an attempt to set the record straight, San Francisco school officials and immigrant advocates last week held a news conference in a Head Start center in the city's immigrant-heavy Mission neighborhood. The 64,000-student system has notified all schools and printed notices for parents in Chinese and Spanish to urge them to keep their children in school, said district spokeswoman Gail M. Kaufman.

During congressional debate on an immigration-reform bill, lawmakers tried to pass a measure to allow states to deny certain undocumented children a free public education. The plan eventually failed. But with newspaper headlines on overhauling welfare and cutting benefits to immigrants, such policy distinctions do not always translate accurately to...