Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper asks what educational provision is made for school-age youth detained in Texas as a result of federal immigration policies, and how the Texas Education Agency and other state policymakers respond to this dilemma? Refugees, asylees, undocumented children, unaccompanied minors, migrant, and unaccompanied alien children (UAC) are all terms used for immigrant children in the United States. When immigrant children arrive in the U.S., they undergo a lengthy and complicated process of resettlement. Often, this begins with detainment in processing centers with a mandated release into sponsor custody (shelter) within 72 hours or less. However, many of these children end up in immigration detention centers for longer periods of time.

US federal law requires that all immigrant children receive educational services, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) provides much of the funding through the Refugee School Impact Program, which is part of the Division of Refugee Assistance (DRA). The Refugee School Impact Program provides grants to school districts for the education of refugee and immigrant children. In Texas, the refugee, and asylee population overlaps significantly with the migrant student population. According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), Texas hosts the “largest interstate migrant student population in the United States” which is approximately 16,000 migrant students, with the majority (approximately 56%) residing in the Rio Grande Valley. However, the TEA has declined to fund the education of students in shelters, citing state law that double-funding of education for detained immigrant children “remains solely with the federal government.”

State policies are, broadly speaking, also clear that local educational districts within states are not obligated to provide education to school-age youth in criminal or other detention facilities, although some independent school districts do. Yet, with rising numbers of detained children as a result of US immigration policies, the education of those youth is an increasing concern, particularly for states like Texas that share borders with Mexico.

This paper provides a comparative policy analysis of Texas state education policy related to refugee, asylee and the immigrant children either relocated with sponsors or detained throughout Texas. The paper deals with those who are placed into mainstream public schools following federal immigration policies (or documented guidelines), the education of children held in ICE or ICE-sponsored detention facilities, and children provided education by private contractors. The comparison examines documented education policies in terms of access, achievement, and opportunity to learn, and is couched within a larger framework, which assumes that education is a human right as outlined in Article 26 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Findings suggest that Texas state education policy is more explicit in how access, achievement, and opportunity to learn are provided for refugee and asylee children placed in public schools in Texas than any documented guidelines or policies related to the education of children detained in ICE facilities. The paper ends with policy recommendations for Texas and other affected US-states and a call for further research based on these preliminary findings.