How the SCOTUS Decision on Birthright Citizenship Could Affect Access to Education
Here’s what you need to know about how the Supreme Court’s decision to abolish or reduce primogeniture could change the education landscape.
Public schools cannot expel students because of their immigration status
All children, regardless of immigration status, have the right to a free K-12 education in the United States. That right was upheld in a landmark 1982 Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe.
The case centered on whether Texas could prohibit the use of federal funds to educate children who were in the US illegally. Another question was whether a public school district could charge foreign-born students tuition to enroll. Immigrant students sued and won.
In Plyler Cervantes says, “It was recognized by the justices that denying children a K-12 education, a basic education, would create a permanent inferiority complex in our society.”
Because of this decision, school districts do not have to collect attendance data for their students or their families. But immigration lawyers worry about that Plyler have become victims of politics.
“The Conservative movement has made it clear that it intends to overthrow Plyler v. Doe by even providing a playbook to state legislatures to help make that happen,” said Alejandra Vázquez Baur, founder and director of the National Newcomer Network, which advocates for newly arrived immigrant students.
The Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind Project 2025, which has developed many of the Trump administration’s initiatives, recently called on states to restrict public education for undocumented students and recommended that states challenge it directly. Plyler decision, arguing that it costs states hundreds of millions of dollars in education spending by 2023 alone.
Heritage’s Lora Ries wrote: “States have a vested interest in saving limited taxpayer dollars by prioritizing US citizens and legal immigrants.
Tennessee lawmakers are among those taking action: There are bills currently moving through the state legislature that propose tracking the legal status of K-12 students and allowing public schools to refuse to enroll undocumented students. Several other states have also proposed legislation that directly, or indirectly, threatens it Plyler.
If any of these proposals become law, they could invite legal challenges, and ultimately open up the question of whether immigrant children have a right to a public education.
The right to education does not mean that families feel safe sending their children to school
Efforts to enforce immigration can have a negative impact on school attendance.
MPR News reported that after Minnesota’s immigration spike earlier this year, some counties saw a 20-40% increase in absenteeism. And that trend predates the Trump administration: Researchers at the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University, found that after the January 2025 immigration raid, school districts in California’s Central Valley experienced a 22% increase in absenteeism.
Vázquez Baur says the findings demonstrate the right of immigrant children to attend K-12 public schools. already under threat.
“The law is still the law, children can still go to school. Now, we know that is complicated at this time by enforcing the law to come to schools,” he said. “The issue of innate citizenship makes that even more difficult.”
Sophia Rodriguez, a professor of education policy at New York University, has been studying the impact of immigration enforcement on school attendance. He says he has heard reports of “constant fear, anxiety and stress” from immigrant families worried about sending their children to school. “And if you add this possible end to citizenship by birth, you create large numbers of communities that live in fear and anxiety,” he said.
Some studies have shown that, historically, when there is an increase in immigration laws, fewer Hispanic students enroll in nearby schools, which can disrupt their education and affect school funding. In most states, public school districts receive funding based on daily student attendance and overall enrollment.
This comes as many school districts are already facing declining enrollment.
Students with disabilities can fall through the cracks
For many children, schools are the first point of contact with community services such as nutrition programs, health care, language learning and counseling. That’s especially true of immigrant families, says NYU’s Rodriguez. “[Schools] it is often the only social institution or government institution that immigrant families reach out to.”
It is also often the first place children’s disabilities are identified, and where those students can get the help they need to succeed. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the federal special education affirmative action law everything children with disabilities the right to a “Free Appropriate Public Education.”
“So those are things that don’t last or change based on immigration status,” said Anne Dwyer, a professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. “But if the community faces the coercion of people from other countries or is afraid of coercion to such an extent that parents do not feel free to even bring their children to school, that means that those children will automatically not be able to access the basics that schools provide.”
Schools also rely on state and federal Medicaid dollars to pay for services such as physical, speech and occupational therapy. The program includes about half of all students in special education programs according to research by KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research organization. Medicaid funding also makes up a large portion of public school budgets: The US Department of Education reported in 2024 that Medicaid sends schools between $4 billion and $6 billion annually.
“Even if a school can provide that type of service, it will probably be a vendor of those services,” said Rodriguez.
However, Medicaid is usually limited to US citizens and people with other qualifying legal conditions. If birthright citizenship is eliminated, children born in the US who were former citizens may no longer be eligible for Medicaid. For any of those children with disabilities, schools would still be legally obligated to operate under IDEA, but they would have to find a way to replace the lost Medicaid money.
“That would create a huge cost shift for districts,” Dwyer said. “And we know that school districts are incredibly tight.”
Paying for higher education will be very difficult
While the law currently provides K-12 education for all students, this is not the case for higher education. Undocumented students can still enroll in college, but they don’t have access to federal financial aid, such as federal student loans and Pell Grants, which help low-income students who are currently experiencing financial hardship.
And because of their status, undocumented students are also more likely to come from poor backgrounds, said Caitlin Patler, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley. “Those two things together make undocumented children unable to afford higher education.”
In some states, including Georgia and Alabama, undocumented students are not allowed to attend certain community colleges; some states charge out-of-state tuition.
Patler says research shows that US citizenship is directly linked to opportunities that increase a child’s education. So over time, as you follow children throughout their lives, educational attainment is directly linked to stronger economic contributions.”
He worries about a future where birthright citizenship is reduced or abolished. “This would have the devastating, potentially multi-generational effect of forcing this large and growing group of millions of children into a class-like situation.”
A class-like situation, he says, where their opportunities will not be determined by their power, but by their immigration status.
