States Move to Correct Enrollment Discrimination After The 74’s Investigation

Thirteen states and three major cities are taking added steps to protect and promote  immigrant students’ educational rights in direct response to an undercover investigation by The 74 that revealed rampant enrollment discrimination against older newcomers.

Senior reporter Jo Napolitano spent nearly a year and a half calling 630 high schools in every state plus Washington, D.C. to test whether they would admit a 19-year-old Venezuelan transplant who spoke little English and whose education was interrupted after ninth grade. Using her own name, she told school officials the new arrival was her nephew, that he had recently moved to their district and was eager to resume his studies.

“Hector Guerrero,” a stand-in for others like him, was refused 330 times, including more than 200 denials in states where he had a legal right to attend according to his age. Many schools, including those that reluctantly accepted him, tried hard to steer Hector to GED programs, adult education or community college — anything but public school.

The 74’s investigation, which exposed a pervasive hostility and suspicion toward older newcomers, proved enrollment for this group is arbitrary across the map, with little consistency within states, counties or school districts: Staffers within the very same building sometimes disagreed.

And those answering these high-stakes enrollment questions — from temporary office workers to school principals — often provided bad information.

Almost all 50 states and D.C. have laws establishing a maximum age for public school enrollment. In 35 states and the District of Columbia, general education students can attend high school to at least 20 — often to 21.

The 74 reached out to 25 states and the U.S. Capitol where Hector was within the maximum enrollment age but faced a high volume of rejections to alert education department officials to our findings.

“It is very concerning that there is confusion among school districts about this issue,” said Jackie Matthews of the Illinois State Board of Education. “We are updating our enrollment and registration guidance to clarify the maximum age of enrollment and are issuing additional guidance to address specific questions about enrolling newcomer students. We hope to bring greater clarity to the field.”

Illinois, where students can stay in high school until age 21, had among the highest refusal rates of any state in the country — 25 out of 32 schools turned Hector away.

In Chicago alone, he was rejected by seven out of eight high schools — and was likely to be refused by one other. Among the rejections: Benito Juarez Community Academy, founded in 1977 when a group of Latina mothers demanded a bilingual high school in their neighborhood.

“We are concerned anytime we hear reports that a prospective student and/or family member may have been turned away from their right to a free public education,” a spokeswoman for the city’s public schools, which serve 323,251 children , wrote in an email. “We have shared the findings on specific schools and are doubling down on our efforts to ensure those particular schools — and all staff — understand the law and our own CPS policies.”

The school system, like many other districts and state education departments around the country, noted it has long taken steps to educate staff about newcomers’ rights. Chicago Public Schools, which at the district level has publicly welcomed immigrant families — many arriving to the city after being bused from southern states — called it “a matter of rightful presence.”

The New Mexico Public Education Department’s general council drafted a memorandum to all districts and charters outlining their legal obligations to these and other students. A spokeswoman there confirmed the action is in response to The 74’s findings. The memo was sent out in early August.

“School districts and charter schools have a responsibility to educate these students regardless of  their relative academic ability or likelihood of success,” it reads. “They are entitled to receive as much education as other students, until graduation or equivalent, or aging out of the public school system.”

State education officials in Michigan say they need additional legislative action to guarantee students’ rights. Spokesman Bob Wheaton said current state law is silent on whether districts must enroll prospective students who will turn 19 or 20 during the school year — even though the law states such students are eligible to attend and school districts receive state aid for supporting them.

“State law says these students are eligible to attend but doesn’t say schools must enroll them,” Wheaton wrote. “That’s why we support legislation to change that.”

Hector was turned down by 11 of 16 Michigan high schools with one other saying it would likely refuse him. Wheaton said a team of staffers within the department is working to explore and recommend a change to the statute’s language.

He said The 74’s investigation “shines a light on the need for states to improve not just their policy in this area but the implementation of their policy.”

Officials in D.C., where Hector was rejected by 6 out of 7 schools, also vowed to take action on the issue before the start of the academic year. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education will “ensure staff consistently share key resources and information with any student or family that contacts a school about enrollment, so that the correct process can be followed and the student enrolled,” a spokesman wrote.

The 74 called 20 high schools in Georgia, where students have a right to attend until age 21, and received 14 refusals and two likely rejections. The state education department did not pledge to take any additional steps to ensure immigrant students’ rights based on our findings — but the Atlanta Public Schools had a starkly different reaction.

A district administrator who works with multilingual learners reached out to The 74 two days after our story published and said the 50,000-student school system had been “diligently educating our registrars to ensure no eligible student is denied enrollment in our district.” She said it intended to take further steps based on our findings.

State education department officials in Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Mississippi and South Carolina said they will reach out to all of the individual schools that refused Hector — in addition to numerous other measures — while Colorado said it will contact the districts as a whole.

Colorado will also advise school superintendents of their responsibility toward these students at upcoming presentations and conferences, a spokesman said. It will highlight enrollment in the commissioner’s monthly communication to superintendents for August and include periodic reminders throughout the school year.

Virginia, where Hector was accepted by just 1 out of 11 schools, also pledged to act on our findings.

“Your reporting showed that a number of our school divisions could use a refresher on the current enrollment requirements, so we are using the start of the school year as an opportunity to remind all divisions of the obligations involving enrollment,” state education officials said. “It is not something we would usually send.”

The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction holds an annual workshop in the summer for school administrators, typically in August, to help prepare for the new school year. At this year’s gathering, a spokesperson said, the department will remind administrators of the state law about maximum age for school admittance — and ask that they ensure staffers who handle enrollment are made aware of it.

North Dakota must admit all students who have not turned 21 by Aug. 1 of that school year.

“This reminder will certainly be verbal and I suspect there will also be a written reminder as well,” the spokesperson said. “I’m sure your story will be mentioned.”

The department has also reached out to the two high schools that refused Hector.

The 74 contacted a minimum of five high schools in each state. Napolitano then added hundreds more in various locations across the country based primarily on the number and percentage of Hispanic and immigrant residents living there. The calls, which numbered in the thousands, were made between February 2023 and May 2024. They were recorded in those states that allow for one-party consent.

Roughly 1.1 million people ages 18 to 20 entered the United States between 2012 and 2021, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

The 74 aimed to expose how schools handle enrollment requests for older immigrant  students in this openly xenophobic era, one in which the southern border has become a hate-fueled political weapon and more and more Americans say they no longer view immigration as good for the country despite the economic boost newcomers bring.

Conservative forces have been trying to bar undocumented children from school for several years . They now want schools to collect information on students’ immigration status when they enroll and charge tuition for undocumented children or the children of undocumented parents. Such steps would defy — and potentially set the stage to overturn — Plyler v. Doe, the landmark 1982 Supreme Court ruling that a child cannot be denied a public education based on immigration status.

Texas, which has some of the most restrictive immigration laws in the nation and is constantly pushing for even more draconian measures to keep new arrivals out , had among the worst acceptance rates in the nation: 18 of 29 schools refused to admit Hector. Two others said they were likely to turn him away.

The Texas Education Agency said it shared The 74’s findings with the state’s Special Investigations Unit. It’s unclear what action may be taken. In Texas, where roughly 1 in 6 residents is an immigrant, students can remain in high school until age 21 and, if a school district accepts them, up to age 26 .

State education officials in Alaska, Hawaii and Maine — where Hector was denied by 16 of 27 total schools — did not respond to repeated calls and emails asking for comment.

Educators and advocates from across the country reached out to The 74 on their own shortly after our June 17 investigation was published to report that these discriminatory enrollment practices were widespread — sometimes involving immigrants as young as 17.

Several said they were heartened to hear at least some states are moving quickly to re-enforce the law.

“I believe that when people are reminded of the facts and stop to think about the importance of allowing all students to pursue an education, they will push for positive change,” said student immigration advocate and policy expert Timothy Boals.

Adam Strom, of Re-Imagining Migration, said immigrant students still face barriers once they enter school, but getting through the door is a crucial first step.

“That work begins, but does not end, with ensuring that all eligible students have unfettered access to education,” he said. “There is more work to be done to ensure equitable educational opportunities, however this is a hopeful start.”