11-03-2025
Educators, lawyer speak on TN proposal to require schools to check students' legal status
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — A Tennessee bill that would let public school systems charge tuition to undocumented students — and require all systems to check all students' legal status — could sow anxiety in immigrant communities if it became law, a local school official said Monday.
'I think most of them would cooperate because they are very cooperative, law abiding,' Unicoi County Schools Federal Programs Director Mike Riddell told News Channel 11. He was speaking of the rural system's sizeable Hispanic community that does include some families that haven't been in the area for very long — and almost certainly at least a few with family members who aren't in the United States legally.
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'I do think there would be some maybe trepidation and fear on the part of (students) initially enrolling,' Riddell said. 'That would be my biggest fear is, on the front end they just wouldn't enroll them in school because they would know that that was going to be required of them upon enrollment.'
The bill, which heads to a House committee Tuesday after narrowly passing the Senate Education Committee last week (three of eight Republicans voted 'no'), would mandate that systems document the status of students who enroll. School systems would also have the option of charging tuition to students whose paperwork doesn't prove they are either citizens, legally in the country on some other status, or in the process of obtaining citizenship.
That's a marked departure from how school systems interpret federal law when it comes to educating K-12 students.
'We don't ask for citizenship status,' Riddell said. 'We don't ask for Social Security number, any of that. When a student enrolls here, we ask for proof of residence that they reside in our county because that's required.'
A 1982 Supreme Court decision, Plyler v Doe, found that the nation's public school systems must provide what Riddell referred to as ' free and appropriate education' regardless of legal residency status.
'That means any student or child, 18 or under, that comes into our school system, we enroll them and we educate them. That's based upon federal law … as interpreted by the court system up to this point in time.'
Riddell said Unicoi County employs four English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers.
'We've had a little bit of an uptick in the number of students, but not enough that we can't fund it or take care of it,' he said of the cost of providing ESL services.
Missy Testerman teaches ESL and directs the program for the Rogersville City Schools and is the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)'s National Teacher of the Year. She said funding ESL programs hasn't stressed most school systems' budgets, as various federal income streams and state 'TISA' funds leave little for local districts to cover.
'The most expensive students to educate are actually those students who are enrolled in career technical education programs, which are so important,' Testerman said. 'But I have a concern if we begin to use the excuse that we cannot educate students because they're costly, will that then trickle down to disabled students that require additional service?'
Testerman said she's concerned that mandated gathering of information may be as much of an impetus for the bill as any desire to help systems save or recoup some money.
'That's a place that's difficult for my heart to go, because honestly, it just does not make sense to choose to not educate every student who's in your state,' Testerman said. 'So when we're thinking along those lines, that makes it very uncomfortable for me. But yes, those thoughts do enter my mind.'
Testerman said she was surprised to see the bill nearly die in the education committee. Republicans Ferrell Haile (Gallatin), Mark Pody (Lebanon) and Kerry Roberts (Springfield) joined Memphis Democrat Raumesh Akbari in opposing the bill, which passed 5-4.
'I'm really, really thankful for the courageous leadership,' Testerman said, referring to the Republicans who voted against.
'It's just bad practice for our students, it's bad practice for our state,' she said. 'When we have companies moving into our state to establish industry, they're doing so because they feel as though they can locate workers within our state.
'Moves like this are just going to demonstrate that we're not serious about educating all of our students and on down the road that will affect the types of industry that move into Tennessee, and it is that industry that allows us to be prosperous.'
McKenna Cox, a local attorney, said she believes the bill is intended at least as much to challenge federal precedent as it is to offer school systems a chance to recoup some money.
'I think they want to have that bill passed, certain members of the legislature, have that bill go up and eventually, hopefully make it to the Supreme Court on a writ of certiorari and be heard and reexamine that entire precedential decision,' Cox said.
Testerman said if that is the case, 'as a taxpayer, I find that a waste of taxpayer funds to pass legislation solely with the intent of being able to litigate it.'
If the bill were to pass and become law in Tennessee or another state, Cox said she believes groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center or American Civil Liberties Union are 'poised' to challenge it — provided they can find plaintiffs.
'Do they want to come forward and and put themselves in the spotlight that way, especially in light of the current attitude towards immigrants in this country at the moment,' she said.
While Riddell said he didn't foresee great difficulty in setting up a vetting system for new enrollees if it came to it, Testerman and Cox both expressed concern about that as well.
'How are we going to determine what is a valid immigration document and what is not?' Cox said.
'It's a challenge for most judges. It's a challenge for most folks who are not involved and steeped in this immigrant and immigration milieu. And so to put that burden on schools, I mean, they have enough to do as it is, seems like an additional stretch, an additional burden and an additional cost.'
Even Testerman, who's worked with a number of immigrant families, said she expects compliance would be difficult.
'They're not experts on the authenticity of paperwork, and it's going to put another burden on school systems to comply with regulatory things when our focus needs to be on educating our students,' the veteran of more than three decades in the classroom said.
Cox said the Plyler v Doe decision found that all children present in the U.S. are protected by the Constitution's 14th Amendment, and particularly the Equal Protection Clause, when it comes to public education. Reversing that, she said, could not only jeopardize children's education — it could potentially subject families to a greater risk of deportation.
The bill shields any lists of student legal status from public information requests, but Cox isn't sure that would apply to authorities.
'They'll be in Tennessee Department of Education records, and those records might be accessible to Tennessee agencies that then can share with a federal government agency or an immigration enforcement agency or local and state law enforcement,' she said.
News Channel 11 reached out to Sen. Rusty Crowe (R-Johnson City), a co-sponsor who voted for the bill in last week's education committee meeting, asking several questions about his hopes for what the bill would accomplish. The station repeated questions asked last week but has not received a response.
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