MEMPHIS — In at least 14 states — including Massachusetts — hundreds of unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have been discouraged from enrolling in schools or pressured into what advocates and attorneys argue are separate but unequal alternative programs.
The children are essentially at an academic dead end. America’s schools remain one of the few government institutions for which migrant youth are guaranteed services, but the federal government has extended little money or oversight to monitor whether that happens, in part because schools are locally governed, according to an Associated Press investigation.
In Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and South Carolina, social workers and attorneys said migrant students have been barred from enrolling, kept out of class for months, or routed to reform schools and adult programs.
City officials in Lynn, Mass., suggested two Central American teens were lying about their age to get into high school in summer 2014. Since then, dozens of unaccompanied minors have been sent to alternative newcomers programs, where they studied English and other material but received no credit. The district declined to comment.
Since fall 2013, the federal government has placed nearly 104,000 unaccompanied minors with adult sponsors in communities nationwide, where they are expected to attend school while they seek legal status in immigration court.
Months later, during the dramatic surge of illegal crossings at the border, the Education and Justice departments issued joint guidelines reminding districts that a 1982 Supreme Court ruling established that states cannot deny children a free public education, regardless of immigration status.
For students learning English, the guidelines say school districts must provide appropriate language assistance services so students can participate equally in the standard instructional program within a reasonable period of time.
Districts found to have broken the law can be forced to change their enrollment policies, but making that happen is not easy. Few migrant children understand their rights.
