Education

Overview

At the National Immigration Law Center, we fight to protect the constitutional right for all children, regardless of immigration status, to attend our nation’s K-12 public schools, while working to expand access to higher education on the state and federal levels. We power our work through impact litigation, policy advocacy, movement-building, and narrative and culture change.

Why It Matters

All children should have the opportunity to learn and grow without fear. At every stage of life, access to education is essential to a young person’s development and their ability to interact with peers, gain skills, and expand their talents.

Approximately 98,000 undocumented students graduate from high schools in the U.S. every year. These students have the same hopes and dreams as their fellow graduates: to gain a college degree, pursue a career, and be able to provide for themselves and their loved ones. And yet, far too often, these young people graduate and face serious barriers to higher education because of their immigration status.

Our Work

All communities benefit when students are supported in pursuing their dreams. As we advocate for expanded access to higher education, NILC is responding to threats to the right to learn for younger children. Over forty years ago, the United States Supreme Court ensured access to education for all children, regardless of immigration status. The landmark case, Plyler v. Doe, held that it was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution for a state to discriminate against undocumented children by denying them access to that state’s system of public education. Since the Plyler decision, NILC has successfully litigated cases protecting undocumented students’ rights to access public education in California and Alabama, while also taking on barriers arising at the local level across the country.

K-12 Public Schools

In response to emerging, politically-motivated attacks on young immigrant children, we launched a nationwide campaign with 34 partners, dedicated to protecting access to K-12 public education for all students.

While there has been tremendous progress made on the state level to make college more accessible, too many high-schoolers still graduate only to face serious, and often unsurmountable, financial barriers to higher education. For undocumented students, challenges can include living in states where public colleges and universities deny them admission or charge them several times the rate of in-state tuition, while also not being eligible for federal financial aid.

Inclusive tuition policies have been shown to benefit all communities, by reducing high-school dropout rates, increasing the number of graduates who pursue a college degree, raising student incomes and tax contributions, and yielding an array of other economic and social benefits.