A New Jersey school district has agreed to stop requiring parents to show government-issued identification before registering their children in school. This reversal by the Butler School District is the result of a settlement to resolve a lawsuit brought by the New Jersey ACLU.                              

In 2008, the New Jersey ACLU conducted a survey of over 500 New Jersey school districts about required documentation for school registration. The survey found that 139 school districts required parents to present documents that indicated the parents’ immigration status, a violation of New Jersey regulations.

As stated in its lawsuit, the ACLU maintains that the Butler School District’s policy singled out immigrants because parents can only obtain a government-issued identification if they have a Social Security number of valid immigration status. This New Jersey lawsuit is only one of many political and legal disputes nationally between the obligation of public schools to educate all students and the public policy to “police” potential illegal immigration.