Do undocumented children in the public school system have educational rights?

The Arizona Association for Bilingual Education (AABE) regards as its primary goal the promotion of achievement and success of all students in the educational process regardless of immigration status in accordance with the AABE Constitution Article II B, "Promoting efforts to assure the provision of equal educational opportunity for all".

The AABE urges school officials, teachers and staff in Arizona to maintain a safe learning environment afforded to all students including those considered undocumented as established in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982) .  

Conclusion:

Yes. The Court reasoned that illegal aliens and their children, though not citizens of the United States or Texas, are people "in any ordinary sense of the term" and, therefore, are afforded Fourteenth Amendment protections. Since the state law severely disadvantaged the children of illegal aliens, by denying them the right to an education, and because Texas could not prove that the regulation was needed to serve a "compelling state interest," the Court struck down the law.

Click on the links below for information related to the educational rights of undocumented children in U.S. public schools.

U.S. SUPREME COURT, PLYLER v. DOE, 457 U.S. 202 (1982), 457 U.S. 202

More legal information: http://www.oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1981/1981_80_1538/

From NEA: Schools Can't Turn Away Undocumented Students