Students in New Westminster with precarious immigration status or no immigration status at all are one step closer to an education without fear of deportation.
Trustees approved a draft sanctuary schools policy at an education policy and planning committee meeting last week. The New Westminster Sanctuary Schools policy intends to make the district a safe and welcoming place for all students, no matter their immigration status.
The draft policy, which will be officially presented to the board of education later this month, is the result of nearly a year’s work by staff, trustees and stakeholders on the district’s sanctuary schools task force.
“I very much support the policy,” trustee Casey Cook told the Record.
Cook was the one who first proposed the school district look at creating a sanctuary schools policy. He made his motion at an education committee meeting last March – a motion that was unanimously approved by trustees at a board meeting later that month.
Cook said it took a lot of fine work by staff to get the draft policy ready.
“We also had to make sure we didn’t overreach with our policy and make it too broad that it would impact other programs (like) international students, and that was the balance we had to find, and I think that with some words missing, we have found that,” he said.
“But the important thing of it all is that I think we make sure we live up to our commitment to children whose families are in vulnerable and precarious situations.”
Through the draft policy, all school aged children, “including those with precarious immigration status or no immigration status,” are welcome to seek an education within the New Westminster school district. The education policy and planning committee has recommended the board of education approve the draft policy at its upcoming meeting on Feb. 28.
The B.C. Teachers’ Federation drafted a sanctuary school policy proposal in 2014, however, school districts across the province have yet to adopt it. (In Canada, Toronto was the first school district to adopt its own policy regarding access for non-status students.)
