Advocates for undocumented families are worried school districts aren’t ready to fully implement the law.

For the first time, all children who live in Quebec can attend school this year for free, regardless of their immigration status.

Under a new Quebec law, parents need only show that they live in Quebec in order to enrol their children in primary or secondary school. But advocates for undocumented families are worried school districts aren’t ready to fully implement the law.

How will undocumented families find out about the new policy? Will school district staff know which documents to ask of parents? Will people without valid immigration status feel safe sharing their addresses with a public institution? The Education Without Borders collective asked these questions during a press conference in Montreal on Thursday.

“We know that the law has been established, but we’re asking how it will be concretely applied,” said Barbara Fritz, a member of the collective. The group has campaigned for universal access to schools since 2011.

Before the new law, called Bill 144, undocumented families were charged thousands of dollars in school fees.

At the Commission scolaire de Montréal, those fees were $5,735 per year for a primary school student and $7,172 at the secondary level during the last school year. For a student with a disability, the charge was $20,323.

A document from the education ministry said parents must show a proof of address in Quebec and confirm their link with the child through, for example, a birth certificate.

Students can access free schooling through the age of 18, or 21 for a student with a disability. The law passed last November and came into effect in July.

School districts should hang posters clearly informing undocumented families of the change, the Education Without Borders collective said. The group’s other demands: train school district staff on how to carry out the law, and stress the importance of confidentiality with personnel.

Three websites for school districts in and around Montreal still instruct families to bring immigration documents with them when they go to enrol their child: Pointe-de-l’Île, Laval and Marie-Victorin.

“We’re concerned that they’re going to keep asking for immigration status, and also that the general understanding of confidentiality issues is sometimes rather poor,” Baird said. He added he has seen personnel ask families about their immigration status in lobbies where others could hear.

“Some families are so afraid that their immigration status will be exposed that they’re too afraid to go enrol their children in school. Those families must be reassured that their status won’t be used against them,” Fritz said.

A staff member could expose a family’s status by calling immigration authorities, either because they have an anti-immigrant prejudice or because they don’t understand the sensitivity of the information, Fritz said.

“The ministry (of education) could help in terms of getting public information out to families and making training available to school boards, but it’s also going to be a lot at the level of school boards. It’s going to be necessary for them to take things seriously,” Baird said.

The Montreal Gazette asked Quebec’s education ministry and the Commission scolaire de Montréal about their implementation of Bill 144, but did not receive a response by our deadline.

Author: Darya Marchenkova
Published by Montreal Gazette on August 23, 2018