A Demand to Change

Advocacy groups allege Saugus admission policy deters and discourages immigrants from getting an education in town’s schools

By Mark E. Vogler

Lawyers representing two nonprofit advocacy groups claim an admission policy approved by the Saugus School Committee a year ago constitutes an illegal barrier to immigrant students seeking to obtain an education.

“A new school year will be starting soon. Accordingly, we urge you to voluntarily revise SPS’s Student Admissions Policy immediately to avoid legal action,” attorneys representing Lawyers for Civil Rights and Massachusetts Advocates for Children wrote last week in a “demand letter” emailed to School Committee members.

“We urge you to make these changes prior to the start of the 2024-25 school year on August 27, 2024, so that no schoolchildren will be unlawfully excluded or deterred from enrollment in the Saugus Public Schools,” the letter added.

Saugus defends the policy

The School Committee issued a statement this week defending itself, while asserting that the current policy is proper. “Saugus, like most other communities, has an admission policy in place that ensures that our students are residents of Saugus and not of surrounding communities,” the statement said.

“This policy states, very clearly, that no child who actually resides in Saugus will be denied access to school due to immigration status, nor by law would it apply to homeless students who are entitled to an education here. This is both our policy and practice,” it stated.

School Committee Chair Vincent Serino told The Saugus Advocate on Wednesday that the email School Committee members received on Aug. 15 was the first time members were made aware of any issues related to the new policy. “The policy has been in place for over a year and we have received no complaints,” Serino said.

“Dese [the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education] has also received no complaints about our policy. We vet all our policies through our legal representation before voting on them,” Serino said.

But the lawyers, in their “demand letter,” allege that immigrant children living in Saugus have already been affected by the School Department’s admission policy. “Our legal organizations are aware of at least two cases—both involving immigrant families—where SPS’s illegal requirement impeded children’s enrollment and resulted in substantial time out of school,” the lawyers wrote.

“More families are undoubtedly impacted and harmed. This requires redress. The Policy must be revised immediately, particularly with the imminent start of the 2024-2025 school year,” the lawyers said in their letter.

What the policy entails

On August 10, 2023, the Saugus School Committee adopted a Student Admissions Policy that states the following:

• All children attending Saugus Public Schools must “be legal residents whose actual residence is in Saugus.”
• “Families who move to Saugus must complete the Town of Saugus census … to be eligible to register their children in the school system.”
• Families must produce documents showing residency, occupancy, and identity. For evidence of identity, the acceptable documents listed are a Massachusetts driver’s license, a U.S. passport, a Massachusetts photo ID card, or other government-issued photo ID.
• The Superintendent may “request additional documentation,” “conduct an investigation,” and “continue to verify residency” throughout the school year.
• The Policy threatens “all applicable criminal and civil penalties” and restitution against anyone who violates the Policy.
• The Policy states that if a family moves from Saugus during the school year “immigration records required by law” will be sent to the receiving school.

Attorneys for the two groups – Lawyers for Civil Rights and Massachusetts Advocates for Children – alleged in a press release posted on a website last week that the Saugus policy “imposes overly stringent residency and proof-of-identity requirements and impermissibly denies admission to children of families who have not filled out the Town Census.”

“These requirements disproportionately impact immigrant and mixed-status families, violating their rights under the U.S. and Massachusetts Constitutions,” the press release stated.

“Strewn with exclusionary language, the policy purports to require all students of the Saugus Public Schools to be ‘legal residents’; excludes any family that has not completed the Town Census; requires identity documents that many immigrants lack; and even threatens investigations and ‘criminal and civil penalties’ against anyone who violates the policy,” the advocacy groups said in the press release.

“If a family moves from Saugus during the school year, the policy warns that the district will send unspecified “immigration records” to the student’s new school. These threats – individually and collectively – are unlawful, exclusionary and discriminatory.”

In its “demand letter,” the advocacy groups suggested specific changes that need to be made as soon as possible. “At a minimum, the Town Census requirement and the references to ‘legal residents’ and ‘immigration records required by law’ must be removed,” the advocacy groups suggested.

“The ‘identity documents’ list must also be expanded to include any document sufficient to establish identity, such as a military, school, or employment ID or another current ID that includes both the parent/guardian’s photo and legal name.

More generally, we encourage a change in tone that makes clear that all residents of the Town are welcome to enroll in the Saugus Public Schools.”