Fact brief: Do Texas schools track students’ immigration and citizenship status?

Texas does not track the immigration and citizenship status of students attending public schools.

A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Texas law established that children regardless of immigration status have the right to public education. 

Texas does not allow schools to ask about a child’s immigration status.

Federal privacy laws protect children’s personal information in student records.

Texas directs schools to collect data on whether students are immigrants. 

Texas follows a definition outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 that defines immigrant children as “individuals who are aged 3 through 21; were not born in any state; and have not been attending one or more schools in any one or more states for more than three full academic years.”