Shelter Island School issues immigration policy

The Board of Education has signaled its intent to adopt a policy aimed at protecting the rights of immigrant students  with an introduction of a policy that is likely to be adopted next moth..

Three administrators — Superintendent Brian Doelger, Ed.D., Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Rylott and Assistant Principal Sean Brennan would function as “Immigrant Student Rights Liaisons.”

The policy, the Board says, is to  protect non-authorized people from entering areas of the school building and other facilities to encounter children or seize records about their families.

If adopted as it currently reads, the policy would not defy laws or court ordered rulings. It outlines several specific areas where school officials would respond with information that is requested. They include:

• Complying with federal judicial warrants or court orders signed by a federal District Court or magistrate judge.

• When administering a public program or benefit requested by a family.

• Exchanging information regarding citizenship or immigration status with the federal Department of Homeland Security or other federal, state or local governmental entities in compliance with the law.

The policy would ban access to school property or facilities to immigration authorities unless presented with a valid federal judicial search or arrest warrant signed by a federal district court or magistrate.

But school officials would not respond to a civil immigration warrant, administrative detention order, notice to appear or other non-judicial document. 

The policy would ban a number of actions by staff members unless such actions resulted from a federal judicial warrant or court order from a federal District Court or magistrate judge. School officials would be prohibited from surrendering any student to an immigration agent solely because the student’s parent or legal guardian had been arrested, detained or taken into federal custody. Nor would a student be released into custody based on a civil immigration warrant.

The staff would be prohibited from assisting in locating, questioning or detaining a student; using school resources for the purpose of immigration enforcement purposes; or exposing or threatening to disclose information or records about actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status of students or their families.

In the event officials receive a request from an immigration authority to enter the school to take custody of a student, the Immigrant Student Rights Liaisons will reach out to an attorney for guidance. The liaisons will also review the warrant or court order to determine if the order is validly issued by a federal court and will also notify the State Board of Education of the order.

Should school authorities learn a parent or guardian has been detained by immigration authorities or fails to pick up a student as scheduled, district officials will keep the student safe on school premises. They will not report the situation to the State Central Register for Child Abuse and Maltreatment unless they have made every reasonable effort to reach all other authorized emergency contacts.