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Massachusetts public schools must provide equal access to all children regardless of their immigration status, and cannot give students' personally identifiable information to ICE agents without written parental consent, according to guidance from the attorney general's office.
Attorney General Andrea Campbell sent the advisory to education officials around the state, in response to questions from educators about President Donald Trump's mass deportation push. The advisory is just guidance, according to her office, and not the formal legal opinion of the attorney general.
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The Department of Homeland Security under the newly sworn-in second-term president announced last week that it was ending a policy that restricted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents' ability to arrest undocumented people at or near so-called sensitive locations, such as religious institutions, schools and hospitals. The policy had been in place since the Obama administration.
"We are really clear about schools' obligations to protect students and their information, because this is a strong component of protecting students' education information at the heart of it as well," Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Acting Commissioner Russell Johnston said during a Board of Education meeting in Everett on Tuesday.
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The department is helping to disseminate the guidance, and is holding webinars alongside the AG's office for school and district leaders.
Campbell's memo details that state and federal law require that school districts enroll all school-aged children who reside in the district, regardless of whether they are U.S. citizens. It also offers suggestions for how districts can ensure their enrollment policies do not discourage immigrant students.
"School districts may want to consider revising their enrollment policies to collect only the information necessary to verify the student’s age and residence," it says. "... As a general matter, schools should not collect for enrollment purposes or maintain documents that contain passport information, visa information, and Social Security numbers. This information is not necessary to confirm age or residency and collecting it creates additional data protection obligations, and risks deterring enrollment on the basis of immigration or citizenship status."
The attorney general outlined recommendations for school officials, if an ICE agent tries to remove a student from a classroom.
If an agent requests access to a student, schools should refer them to the school's central office, who should immediately notify their parent or guardian. Superintendents should contact the district's legal counsel before responding.
If an ICE agent attempts to remove a student from their classroom, schools "must obtain the specific, informed written consent of a parent or guardian or be provided with a valid, judicial warrant signed by a federal or state judge." If they have a warrant, the school district should ask legal counsel about information on the scope of the warrant and if it provides the authority to make an arrest.
Schools are prohibited from giving, either verbally or in writing, a student's information to third parties -- including ICE agents -- without specific, informed written consent of a parent or guardian, under state and federal laws and regulations.
Reports have surfaced of immigrant families keeping their children home from school, out of fear of ICE raids, over the past week.
At Tuesday's board meeting, member Martin West asked Johnston if DESE was collecting data on decreased attendance for this student population.
Johnston replied that they have some "anecdotal information" and they are "continu[ing] to track that" but do not have data about those attendance metrics right now.
On Monday, the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform opened a probe into so-called sanctuary cities, and called on Boston Mayor Michelle Wu to testify before the panel on Feb. 11.
"Sanctuary jurisdictions are “states, counties or cities that put some limits on how much they are willing to cooperate with federal agencies’ efforts to deport” illegal aliens. These jurisdictions take it upon themselves to decide what laws they will and will not abide by all for the purpose of shielding removable aliens, especially criminals, from federal law enforcement," says a letter addressed to Wu from Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chairman of the committee.
It continues, "There are about 12 states and hundreds of cities and counties with sanctuary laws or policies across the country. Four cities, however, stand out in their abject failure to comply with federal law: Chicago, New York City, Denver, and Boston. Citizens of all four cities have suffered due to sanctuary policies."
Wu told the Boston Globe the city is still deciding how to respond to the call for her to testify next month.
"The federal government can implement their laws, and we’re not forced to participate in their actions,” she told the Globe.