Enrolling your child in public school

The US Supreme Court settled this in 1982, in Plyler v. Doe: children living in the United States have the right to enrol in and attend public elementary and secondary school, regardless of their own immigration status or that of their parents.

The Department of Education restates that principle on its current page, saying that "citizenship or immigration status of students, parents, or guardians cannot be used to bar students from public schools".

Put plainly: a public school may not demand immigration papers as a condition of accepting your child, and may not remove your child because the family lacks them.

What a school may not do#

This is the part worth printing and taking with you.

• It may not require a Social Security number. A district cannot make you provide one to enrol your child. If it asks, it must tell you that providing it is voluntary, and declining cannot cost your child a place.
• It may not make immigration status a condition. Not your child's, and not yours.
• It may not insist on one specific document proving age or residency when your family has a different document that proves the same thing.
• It may not refuse you because a birth certificate is foreign. A Vietnamese birth certificate is still a birth certificate.
• It may not apply different rules to your family. The same documentation standard has to apply to every family in the district, without regard to race, colour, national origin, citizenship or immigration status.

What a school may ask#

Schools can still ask some things, and those questions are legitimate:

• Whether you live within the district. This is a question about where you live, not about immigration paperwork. A range of documents is usually accepted: utility bills, a lease, a signed affidavit. If you are renting, see renting a home.
• Your child's age, to place them in the right grade.
• Immunisation and health records, as your state requires.

What matters is not whether they may ask, but that they must ask every family the same way.

You have the right to an interpreter#

Many parents do not know this one, and it changes the whole enrolment meeting.

Schools are responsible for communicating with limited-English-proficient parents in a language they can understand, and for providing free interpretation. They may not ask students, siblings, friends or untrained staff to interpret.

That means you do not have to put your twelve-year-old in the position of translating a conversation about their own schooling. Tell the school you need a Vietnamese interpreter. That is their job, not a favour.

If your child is turned away#

Work outwards, nearest first:

1. Ask the district office, not just the one school. Often this is a front-desk misunderstanding of the rules, and the district level fixes it in one call.
2. Get the reason in writing, as above.
3. Ask your state education department, if the district does not change its answer.
4. File a complaint with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. You can file online, and there is a 180-day deadline from the date the discrimination occurred, so do not sit on it. Their phone number is 800-421-3481.

That 180-day limit is the reason to write down dates on the day it happens: what day, who said it, what they said. Put those few lines in your phone while it is fresh.

What to do, in order#

1. Gather proof of where you live: utility bill, lease, or an affidavit. Immigration documents are not needed.
2. Bring your child's birth certificate, including a Vietnamese one, and immunisation records if you have them.
3. Ask for a Vietnamese interpreter when you book the enrolment appointment, rather than raising it when you arrive.
4. If the school asks for a Social Security number, ask whether it is required. The correct answer is that it is not.
5. If you are refused, get the reason in writing and take it to the district office.
6. Write down the dates, because the Office for Civil Rights deadline is 180 days.

The right to go to school belongs to the child. It is not a reward for the parents' paperwork. If the family's immigration situation is the larger worry, becoming a US citizen covers the long road, and enrolling your child does not have to wait for it.