ACLU Settles Lawsuits With N.J. School Districts

Five school districts will no longer require parents to produce documents showing immigration status when registering their children for school. That is the result of a settlement between the American Civil Liberties Union and the districts released Monday.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Fair Lawn, Spotswood, Port Republic, and Jamesburg public school districts last month, and the Jersey City Global Charter School claiming their requirements of parents to produce driver's licenses and/or vehicle registrations when registering their children for school was "discriminatory."

The districts must also clarify registration information that documents revealing immigration status will not be required, and will reimburse the ACLU-NJ for the filing fees associated with the lawsuits.

The ACLU claims the districts were violating the United States and New Jersey constitutions by requiring the documents. The union said it repeatedly warned the districts and charter schools for years regarding the policies.

In order to get a valid state driver's license, an applicant must have a verifiable social security number, immigration status, and proof of address.

“The ACLU of New Jersey is grateful that the districts recognized the clarity of the law on this issue and quickly settled all of the cases,” said ACLU-NJ Senior Staff Attorney Alexander Shalom. “But registration issues persist throughout the state. The Department of Education must assume responsibility for auditing districts’ compliance with laws resigned to ensure fair access to education for all New Jerseyans.”

The ACLU argued that the state's Administrative Code prohibits that "immigration status does not impact eligibility to attend school."

In 2014, the New Jersey discovered that 136 school districts illegally prohibited immigrant students from enrolling and wrote letters to those districts, asking them to comply with the law. More than 100 changed their policies, but 27 others, including East Rutherford and Hackensack, did not. The ACLU-NJ sued the seven districts with the most severe policies. A few months before that, the ACLU-NJ had filed a lawsuit against the Butler School District when the school district refused to end its policy, and the district ultimately agreed to drop the restrictions.

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