Dive Brief:

• The National Education Association (NEA) and the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting an NAACP lawsuit against President Donald Trump rescinding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). 
• “Young children will suffer the abrupt departure of trusted teachers to the measurable detriment of educational outcomes, teacher shortages will worsen as thousands of DACA educators lose their status, and immigrant students will lose a lifeline to education mentors,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García in a press release. 
• Garcia also said the result of ending DACA "will be disastrous for students and public education." 

Dive Insight:

The DACA program, which was established under the Obama administration, protects eligible young immigrants who came to the United States when they were children from deportation and allows them to get work permits. The program expires every two years and is subject to renewal. 

Numbers by the Migration Policy Institute suggest that in 2016, approximately 228,000 children age 15 and younger were unauthorized immigrants potentially eligible for the DACA program provided they stayed in school. Every year, about 100,000 undocumented immigrants graduate from high school, and in 2014, 31% of the immediately eligible DACA population — or 365,000 students — was enrolled in secondary school. 

Education also remains one of the most common industries of employment for DACA recipients. As of November 2017, approximately 9,000 DACA recipients were employed as teachers or in similar education professions. 

Educator testimonies included as a part of the brief noted how the program gave students and teachers a renewed sense of hope, motivation, agency and the possibility of higher education opportunities. Ending the program, according to the educators, would be "devastating." 

"Their ability to excel is being hampered because they are worried about their safety and future and that of their family members," said Superintendent Matt Utterback from the North Clackamas School District in Oregon. 

The NAACP lawsuit, which was filed last November against Trump, is set to be heard in the Supreme Court on Nov. 12.