NY Attorney General and Commissioner of Education are Dedicated to Protecting Immigrant Students

Image courtesy of the U.S. Department of Education

In a statement released by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and State Commissioner of Education MaryEllen Elia on February 27, the two departments have reaffirmed their commitment to protecting immigrant children in the state school system. They specifically included the following in bold lettering, “Undocumented children, like U.S. citizen children, have the right to attend school full time as long as they meet the age and residency requirements established by state law.”

They advised that schools in every district in New York should refrain from inquiring about a student’s immigration status or requesting information which would indicate such. If they do collect data in accordance with state and/or federal laws, they are advised to do so after the student has been enrolled.

The statement also addressed a number of questions concerning how principals and superintendents should respond to requests from federal agents. Primarily the advice has been to contact the school’s attorneys, but also reminded them that “law enforcement officers may not remove a student from school property or interrogate a student without the consent of the student’s parent or person in parental relation.”

We at Long Island Wins commend Attorney General Schneiderman and Commissioner Elia for their leadership and their upholding of American values by helping to protect those in the immigrant community.

You can read the full statement below:

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Sara Roncero-Menendez is the Online Editor for Long Island Wins. Prior to joining the Long Island Wins team, she graduate from NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and worked as a reporter for publications like Mashable, The Huffington Post, and PSFK. She became involved in immigration issues and advocacy while working towards her Masters degree at The University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign. After joining the Graduate Employee Organization Local 6300, she worked on helping international and undocumented students work with the administration to get fair financial aid and fellowship opportunities. Sara also works on issues of representation in mass media, including film and television, and works on media reviews and podcast.

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