New Regulation Addresses Concerns Related to Unaccompanied and Undocumented Youth

The New York State Board of Regents has adopted a revised version of New York State Education Commissioner’s Regulation 100.2(y).  The emergency regulation seeks to address barriers faced by unaccompanied minors, undocumented youth and others, while making uniform enrollment determinations made by school districts statewide.  The emergency regulation helps ensure equal educational opportunity for all students seeking to enroll in New York State schools regardless of immigration status.  The New York State Education Department (“SED”) proposed the revised regulation to the Board this week following the initiation of a joint compliance review, with the Attorney General’s Office, of school district enrollment policies and procedures. Read full SED press release here.

SAANYS is continuing to work with legislative leaders to promote an understanding of the fiscal and programmatic strain experienced by school districts impacted by surges of unaccompanied minors and undocumented youth. Many of these students are English language learners and many are students with interrupted formal education. It was not possible for the school districts to anticipate and budget for the arrival of such students and many of the impacted school districts do not have the infrastructure to accommodate the numbers and needs of the arriving students. The provision of additional current-year state aid to impacted school districts is essential for the provision of quality educational services to the current and entering students.