Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos walked back comments where she said it would be up to individual schools to decide whether to report undocumented students, Politico reported.
“That’s a school decision. It’s a local community decision,” DeVos said at a congressional hearing in May.
Dozens of civil rights groups as well as congressional Democrats blasted DeVos’ remarks, saying they contradicted a 1982 Supreme Court ruling, Plyler vs. Doe, that guaranteed students’ rights to a public education regardless of immigration status, the Politico report said.
On Tuesday, DeVos clarified her statement during a Senate Appropriations hearing, saying that schools are "a sacrosanct place for students to be able to learn and they should be protected,” Politico reported.
She added that Plyler vs. Doe was a “settled case” that allows “students who are not documented to get an education,” the report said.
“It’s incumbent on us to ensure that those students have a safe and secure environment to attend school,” DeVos added.
More than 100 Democrats in the House and Senate signed a letter that urged DeVos to clarify that schools are required to “serve all children, regardless of immigration status,” the report said, Politico reported.
The secretary also said Tuesday that the role of guns in school safety was not the purview of the federal school safety commission. “That is not part of the commission’s charge, per se,” DeVos said during the Tuesday hearing, CNN reported.
The commission, which was formed after the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman High in Parkland, Florida, is focused on “school safety and how we can ensure our students are safe at school,” DeVos added.
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