New Public Charge Regulation Will Impact School District Finances
Last December, AASA and many individual superintendents
weighed in on a Department of Homeland Security regulation that would change
the definition of who is considered a “public charge” for immigration purposes.
We argued that the proposed regulation put the health and well-being of
millions of immigrant children at risk and could place new burdens on school
districts to provide health and nutrition related services for children who
qualify for these benefits through federal programs.
Despite AASA’s objections, today the final regulation was finalized and it will be effective on October 15th. As children head
back to school it is important that school leaders anticipate that some of the
budgeting they have done for this school year could be impacted by the
regulation. To be clear: this regulation only impacts families who are here
legally. To put a pin on this, nearly 19 million, or 25% of children, had an
immigrant parent as of 2017, and the large majority of these children were
citizens. About 10 million, or 13%, were citizen children with a noncitizen
parent. This is going to impact a lot of kids.
Specifically, for districts with large numbers of immigrant families,
it may be considerably more difficult to get consent for the district to bill
Medicaid as a result of the regulation. Here’s why: the regulation says that if
a parent accesses Medicaid more than two times than their pathway to citizenship
may be denied. The regulation specifically says that a child who accesses Medicaid
via school-based services (whether IDEA eligible or not) would not have that
access held against them, but since districts must obtain consent from parents
to bill Medicaid there is a deep concern that parents will not give consent either
because they are skeptical that it will not impact their family negatively or
because they juts don’t want to wish entangling anyone in their family in the
Medicaid system. The financial repercussions for districts are obvious: money
district leaders are expecting to be reimbursed via Medicaid will not be there
and you’ll have to dip into local dollars to pay for professionals and services
that Medicaid should totally cover or just stop offering some of the non-IDEA
healthcare services you provide to children if those are optional.
On the nutrition side, the regulation directly targets kids.
If a child accesses SNAP (as well as their parent) their access to this federal
benefit would hinder their ability to become citizens. This is absolutely
crazy. A child cannot support themselves financially and if they need access to
food it should not be held against them if they wish to become a U.S. citizen. This
aspect of the regulation that impacts children and adults alike is
intentionally directed to reduce access to food supports for legally present immigrant
families. It will lead to intensive food insecurity for children and schools will
have more kids coming to school with unmet nutritional needs who are not ready
to learn. Districts can, of course, try and pick up the pieces by sending food
home to families and operating their own food banks, but this costs money that
many districts don’t have to spare. Start thinking about how you’re going to
handle this issue locally.
On the housing side district leaders should anticipate an
uptick in the number of children qualifying for McKinney Vento services and
needing transportation. The regulation states that reliance on Section 8
Housing Vouchers will be held against an adult who wants to become a legal
permanent resident of the U.S. Of course children benefit by having access to
stable housing and when families forego this housing benefit then children lose
their access to a stable home, so this will directly harm children. However,
district leaders need to be anticipate that transportation costs they
previously budgeted for may be insufficient as a result of the uptick in children
who are moving away from housing developments and are in shelters or in other
housing situations that are less stable. District leaders are responsible for
the educational stability of these children as families seek other affordable
housing options and must respond accordingly if more students qualify for
McKinney Vento services.
All in all, this regulation can be summarized a deeply flawed
policy that will exacerbate the needs of our nation’s youngest and most
vulnerable. This rule, as released today, will have a devastating impact on the
children that we educate and the school district budgets we manage.