Education for Immigrant Children in Detention

Children housed in an immigrant detention center in Taylor, Texas have legal rights to the same educational opportunities afforded students in public schools, attorneys for the Texas Civil Rights Project said Thursday as they urged officials to further expand daily classroom instruction at the center. In a Jan. 24 letter (here) to Taylor school Superintendent Bruce Scott, Williamson County Judge Dan A. Gattis and the T. Don Hutto Residential Center warden, project attorney Scott Medlock said children held at the center should receive seven hours of daily instruction as required by the Texas Education Code. “As you know, state and federal law requires undocumented immigrant children be provided with educational opportunities equivalent to programs provided to other children,” Medlock’s letter states, citing a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Plyler v. Doe. Reached later, Scott said that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency spokeswoman had asked him to let her respond to media inquiries. The spokeswoman, Nina Pruneda, said the agency was investigating but would have no comment Thursday.   For the full story, click here.

KJ