Eagle County schools ignore students’ status

Matt Terrell
Vail, CO Colorado
June 15, 2008

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EAGLE COUNTY, Colorado — School leaders can tell you how many students can’t speak English in Eagle County, but what they don’t know is how many of those students are here illegally.

A student’s legal status is not something schools are allowed to ask when they’re registering for classes, said Dick Lyons, an attorney for the Eagle County School District.

A 1982 Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe, ruled that undocumented children and young adults have the same right to attend public, kindergarten through 12th grade schools as United States citizens.

Therefore, schools aren’t allowed to deny any child an education because they’re in the country illegally, and schools aren’t even allowed to ask.

“Our job is to educate whoever is in front of us. We can’t differentiate.â€