Hundreds of thousands of students in the United States are immigrants. They attend school with a variety of legal statuses. Millions more students have family members who are immigrants.
Schools are legally obligated to enroll any immigrant student who is eligible to attend, regardless of legal status.
Schools are also obligated to provide English learners with English-language instruction and ensure that they have access to the core academic content other students have.
But schools aren’t always meeting those obligations. Researchers have found, for instance, that English learners often aren’t enrolled in the core courses they need to complete high school.
Beyond these obligations, those familiar with best practices for immigrant students encourage schools to create welcoming learning environments that can help newly arrived students succeed academically and foster their emotional well-being.
Front-desk staff at schools, including security officers, are often the first point of contact for immigrant families seeking to enroll their children. This interaction can make or break a family’s experience with a school system. As such, these staff members need a basic understanding of immigrant students’ rights and schools’ responsibilities toward such students.
This downloadable resource outlines schools’ legal obligations toward immigrant students and best practices based on federal resources and training from the advocacy group ImmSchools, which it offers to school districts in multiple states. It covers general immigration status terminology, a reminder of immigrant families’ rights, and an outline of best practices in registration and day-to-day interactions.
School districts interested in either virtual or in-person training from ImmSchools on supporting immigrant students and their families, including advice on helping students access post-secondary opportunities, can visit ImmSchools’ website and click on “Request our programs.”
Additional resources
For more information pertaining to welcoming immigrant students, review the following resources:
- Protecting Access to Education for Migratory Children: A Resource for Families and Educators, U.S. departments of Education and Justice
- Protecting Access to Education for Unaccompanied Children: A Resource for Families and Educators, U.S. departments of Education and Justice
- Newcomer Toolkit, National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition
- Guidelines for Enforcement Actions in or Near Protected Areas, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Has Consequences. What Schools Can Do to Help, Education Week
