All children residing in a given school district have the right to enroll in school, and school districts are forbidden from excluding them based on their or their parents’ immigrant status. Nonetheless, after extensive research, the ACLU-NJ found five NJ School districts that put up barriers to enrollment for children of undocumented immigrants. The districts are the Fair Lawn School District (Bergen County), Jersey City Global Charter School (Hudson County), Jamesburg and Spotswood School districts in Middesex county, and Port Republic School District in Atlantic County.
We are glad to see that in Bergen County only the Fair Lawn district is on the list. The documents the districts require include drivers’licenses, automobile registrations, or “state ID”.
CoFiA’s staff person Angelica is often asked to assist parents and students with completing the paperwork required for enrollment in Palisades Park. So far she has received no complaints of difficulties with enrollment.