S.B. County schools' effort seeks to let illegal immigrants know they, too, may qualify for residents' price at state colleges

10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, July 17, 2008

By MELANIE C. JOHNSON
The Press-Enterprise

SAN BERNARDINO - A law allowing illegal immigrant students to pay in-state fees for public colleges and universities in California may have been enacted in 2002, but many parents with teens who qualify still don't know about it.

To help get the word out, the San Bernardino County superintendent of schools' office has created a pamphlet on the law to distribute to parents, students, and school districts, said spokeswoman Christine McGrew.

"It's really just a piece of the outreach to parents and families we're doing through the Parent Resource Center," McGrew said.

The education office operates one of the two federally funded Parent Information Resource Centers in California. The center offers workshops, community outreach programs and information to parents, she said.

McGrew said getting the information out about the bill fits into the county's goal of promoting education beyond high school, she said.

Assembly Bill 540 allows long-term California residents, regardless of their citizenship status, to pay the lower resident fees at state colleges and universities. According to the law, admission to California public colleges or universities cannot be denied based on immigration status.

The idea to distribute the pamphlet came out of meetings with the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction and a network of English Learner program coordinators in the county, she said.

The resource center staff has done presentations to school district administrators and has provided pamphlets to be distributed through campus counselors.

Gil Navarro, a San Bernardino County school board member, also has visited school board meetings to urge trustees to distribute the pamphlets.

Navarro said the county schools office got the design for the pamphlet from one put out by the Colton Joint Unified School District, and he praised Superintendent Herbert Fischer and his staff for making it available to all 33 of the county's school districts.

Early outreach on the law will motivate students to go to college, helping to decrease the dropout rate, and will give parents a chance to save for tuition because illegal immigrants do not qualify for financial aid, he said.

"We need to do an effective outreach to the immigrant families with the school staffs involved," he said.

Reach Melanie C. Johnson at 909-806-3069 or mjohnson@PE.com

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