Supporting Students and Families with Complex Immigration Statuses in Postsecondary Planning

Please note that this transcript was auto-generated. We apologize for any minor errors in spelling or grammar.

[00:00:00] Wonderful. Can you see all that? Okay, great. Um, so welcome, everyone. Um, it's again. So, so nice to be back. We've done this webinar now, our MEFA Institute webinar now for several years. Um, and every year, um, I get to, um, I'm going to go ahead and refresh the slides with everything that I have learned over the past year.

Everything all the questions that you all have asked over the past year. And of course, my experience is also working with students. So if you've joined us before for a similar MEFA Institute webinar, you'll recognize some of the slides, but I assure you the content definitely, you know, is tweaked year to year with the most up to date information, especially this year, we have So many exciting updates in Massachusetts, especially.

And so this MEFA Institute webinar is going to be, um, at a certain point, hyper focused on all the amazing Massachusetts tuition equity updates. [00:01:00] Um, so I'm particularly excited to, um, just be in community with you all and share, um, share about those. I'm sure you've already heard much about them, but also be able to answer your questions as we go along.

Um, and so with that, um, just going to get started here. You already know a little bit about MEFA. We're state authority created by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1982. Um, and our mission is to help families plan, save, and pay for college. And I feel so honored now that I work for MEFA to be able to bring in, um, and to continue to build on that strong legacy.

Just by including all sorts of populations and into this mission. So it's not just a certain student, certain family, it's all the families in the Commonwealth. So I'm super proud and excited to join MEFA this year. Um, and so today we're going to cover. A few, um, sort of larger topics. I first wanna sort of guide us in grounding ourselves in this work.

You know, it's very early on a [00:02:00] Tuesday morning. It is Tuesday, isn't it? It's been a busy week. Um, it's very early in a Tuesday morning. We've got the whole week ahead of us. You've got a whole day ahead of you working with, uh, students supporting them. And so just wanna ground ourselves for a minute or two in this work.

Um, wanna explain a little bit about how I think about the larger context as a former counselor, myself? And then really want to deep dive into how, how students can self disclose safely. Um, I think this is something that as a former counselor is, is Has sort of revealed itself to be sort of a cornerstone of how we can best support are undocumented and immigrant students in our schools, and I am sort of proud to say, you know, it's not often a topic that I find other presenters.

Discuss, um, when, when it comes to this topic, because it is such a sensitive subject, um, this identity is so sensitive. There's a lot of weightiness [00:03:00] that comes with being undocumented because it's so closely linked to legal matters, um, that oftentimes well meaning, trusted adults in students lives, myself included, might want to be a little bit more discreet about it, more secretive, and that's.

That's good. It protects students identities, but also it can create sort of an aura of mystique around the subject. And so some something I've been really passionate about when I speak to fellow practitioners is thinking about how we can liberate ourselves, liberate our campus climates and really bring this idea of self disclosing safely out to our staff and, um, and our, you know, fellow counselors.

And then I'll end, um, just sharing some tactical resources about what's happening in Massachusetts and how you can get information and access to your students, pretty much ASAP. I'm going to try to cover all of this in about 55 minutes. Um, this is, this topic could go on for [00:04:00] days. And so, um, if you have a question I don't get to, um, we will, Um, reply to all of those.

You can also get in touch with me directly at my MEFA address, um, at Kenan at MEFA. org. Um, and I'm always a resource for you, um, and happy to continue the conversation after, um, our hour concludes today. Okay, so let's ground ourselves a little bit. Um, I just want to share these four bullet points with you as we go through the next, you know, 20, 25 slides.

And I just want to make you aware that You know, like many, many things in this profession as counselors, you know, it's really important to self reflect about what we bring to the work and what we bring to, um, to our day to day interactions with students. And so you might be tuning in with some lived experience on immigration.

Maybe you have already [00:05:00] experienced some of the ups and downs of the U. S. immigration system firsthand. Maybe you've seen a family member go through it, a friend, or maybe you come to this work just saying, Hey, I just want to learn more. Um, I know some of my students are going through this. I feel like I don't know too much yet, but I'm willing to lean in wherever you are on the spectrum.

The fact that you're here today shows that you care and that you are willing to put in the work to be an ally. Um, so acknowledging your story, acknowledging what you bring to those interactions, and using them to feel you, not to bring you, um, trepidation or shame. I know a lot of counselors sometimes think, well, I don't really know what it feels like to be an immigrant or undocumented, so I'm not the best person to lean into this work or to help my students, but I would actually counter to say that if you show true allyship and you're just With them day in and day out that that can also be as powerful and as trust building as someone who has a live story.

Um, and so I always [00:06:00] also start these webinars by just sharing that I am not undocumented currently. And so I firmly place myself in the, um. The bucket of ally. Um, and I also want to share a disclaimer. I am not an immigration attorney. Um, every, every piece of, um, information in this, uh, presentation has been fact checked and reviewed and well researched, um, and yet I cannot answer some of the more nitty gritty, you know, case by case, Things only immigration attorneys can do that, but I'm certainly, you know, willing to read your question and see if I can point you the right direction.

I've been in this work for about 1213 years. So there are a lot of things that I know. But again, I want to want to share with you that I'm. You know, there, there are limits to what this, you know, this humble former counselor, um, can, can share. Um, I also want you to acknowledge your awareness and knowledge [00:07:00] level.

Be honest with yourselves. Where, where are you strong in this subject? Where can you really, um, you know, advance your, your skills? And maybe there are slides in here that feel repetitive to you, but then other slides that you're thinking, Oh, actually, you know, let me review these afterwards, or let me share this with.

with my team. Lean into growth. This is really hard stuff. It's weighty stuff. Um, it's okay to feel all sorts of emotions while helping students. I think if you can acknowledge that for yourself, you can also help your students acknowledge that, that this is really, really intense sometimes, especially if they're actively applying to college and um, trying to navigate the confusing road that is, you know, having different statuses or being undocumented.

Um, so again please use the Q& A feature at any time. All right. So I want to, um, share these best practices with you. These are practices, best practices that I've sort of curated, um, [00:08:00] Myself, um, after, you know, years of working with students in direct service, um, and I hope that you will take these three back to your organizations or your schools.

Um, and they might seem, I think, high level, um, but I have talked to fellow counselors and when we really put these three into practice, um, they can be quite profound and you can, you will be able to feel, I think, the ripple effects of putting these best practices into practice. into practice quite quickly.

Um, so I'm not going to go into too much detail on this slide because I will flesh them out, but just to read them out loud for us right now. The first one is know your community. Um, know your hyper, hyper local context and always put it sort of juxtapose it with what's happening at the state level and then also what's happening at the federal level.

I think a lot of us read the news. We know [00:09:00] what's going on, perhaps at the federal level, but there's so much that can be controlled as we have seen this year with tuition equity at the state level. So, I think a lot of us recently have turned our attention to state level stuff, which is really important.

And also so much can change from community to community. Um, I was talking to a good counselor friend of mine a few weeks ago and I was sharing, you know, my former school in Boston, you know, we were in East Boston. Um, you know, we had a huge, you know, uh, Algerian population, Moroccan population, um, really growing every year.

And she looked at me and said, really, I'm only Um, you know, we're only two miles away from you, and our population looks completely different. Um, and so that was for me like light bulb moment of like, of course, Um, and so knowing what your hyper local context is [00:10:00] so important to help you better serve your students.

Um, what I mean by that is, for example, um, you know, there are certain protections or certain, you know, humanitarian parole policies making their way right now for Haitian people. Cuban entrance or you can't Ukrainian immigrants. And so if you have certain populations at your school you might be touched by some of these more recent legislation changes versus another community that has predominantly Dominican immigrants and so So this is kind of just a great first step.

The second piece that we'll go into in more detail is self disclosure. Um, of course, you know, I'm like the biggest proponent of safe self disclosure and it's so important for students to feel safe to tell a trusted adult in their school, you know, what their status is or what they need help with in order to maximize your resources and make the most of the time that you have with them.

If they're self disclosing in ninth grade [00:11:00] This is, you know, May of 12th grade. That is a vastly different amount of time that you have in front of them to be able to actually help them kind of get to, to where they want to go. And then the third one is just for you sort of to think about modeling, talking about immigration, especially when it comes or, um, comes to the college application process.

And we'll talk more about how you can disseminate resources to your students when we get to that, that section. Um, I don't see anything in the Q and a yet, but don't be shy. Okay. So, um, for your homework after today is going to bring these self reflection questions back to your desk and your team. If you're a team of one or a team of six, I think these could be some great discussion questions to have at your next, you know, department meeting, maybe as a, just a 15, 20 minute section that you all kind of reflect on and have [00:12:00] some really open dialogue around, um, and maybe there's, um, You know, I'll just use my former office as an example.

You know, I always thought I had my finger on the pulse and thinking, yep, I know my community really well. I'm a former member of this community, feeling good. And I was actually one of our first year counselors that said, actually, like, I've been hearing this. Andrea, did you know this? And so I was like, No, actually, I didn't.

How did, how did you know that? And she said, Well, I went to one of the, you know, soccer games and I overheard this. I overheard a family say this, I engaged in the conversation. And that's how I know what I just told you. And it wasn't a secret. It was more just like about an immigration clinic that was happening in the community that a lot of our community members were going to go to.

And so it's really surprising what different members of your team can bring back. And if you kind of put it all into one melting pot. at least once a year, um, you can learn a lot from each other. And I say once a year [00:13:00] because immigration trends shift radically, oftentimes radically, very quickly. Um, so sometimes what you thought was happening, you know, last year might be kind of, um, shifting into something else.

Maybe there's a new community moving in. And so what countries are mostly represented in your school or organization? Are there statuses that are more prevalent for certain from certain countries? So maybe you're you and your team can look back at the previous year's graduating class and say, well, what were some of the sticky situations that we ran into?

You know, did we suddenly find that we had, you know, a few students with temporary protected status that only had a work permit, you know, in the moment when you're, you know, in the throes of an application cycle as a counselor? You're not necessarily taking the time to step back, um, kind of at that macro level and reflect, but Toward the beginning of the year, maybe some, you know, late summer project as you're all coming back or right at the end of the year, maybe when there's a little lull [00:14:00] in the work, you can kind of come back as a team and say, what were those trends we saw?

How can we be proactive about this next year? You know, maybe in the moment, the counselors didn't quite know what temporary protected status was. You kind of did some research in the moment, reached out to resources, but maybe you all can attend, um, maybe a PD about, um, you know, different things that could help you prepare for, you know, that next wave of students coming in the following year.

Um, you know, obviously you're here today, so there's probably a few undocumented students in your caseloads or your schools, but really trying to take a step back and say, wait, how many do we think we have? It is the, what are the trends? What are we seeing? You know, five years ago, I feel like we only had one or two.

Now, you know, last year we had maybe 10. What's happening here? What countries are they coming from? And all of that will get help you, I think, um, know which resources. to look into more. Um, [00:15:00] and this third one, I mean, we're, you know, I don't know where we're all tuning in from. Um, I'm, you know, I tend to have always been a little bit more hyper local to Boston.

So I tended to know which colleges around us were more undoggy friendly. Um, this is something that I, I hope that, um, as you know, I continue my work at MEFA that maybe we can even build out a counselor community around this, um, because this is also ever changing, and that's, I think you're noticing the trend, right?

It's like what's, what's current one year might not be 100 percent current two years down, down, down the line. Um, and certainly this happens with colleges. I mean, more and more colleges are becoming fully undocu friendly. Um, many are undocu friendly for social services, but less friendly when it comes to financial aid.

Um, but colleges are making breakthroughs. You know big strides in this. It also depends on who's in the [00:16:00] admissions offices, who's actually, you know, In those decision making rooms when, you know, financial aid funding and budgeting is being taken into consideration at these colleges, and I sometimes find, you know, not to throw any shade at anyone because everyone's doing the best they can, but I find that sometimes a college that was super undocu friendly, you know, five, six years ago, maybe has shifted some of their financial priorities and now can't really afford to fund, um, Um, you know, international students for financial aid purposes or, you know, things like that can change, um, you know, obviously you want to see colleges become more and more and doggy friendly with the years, but sometimes there are trends where it goes the other way.

No real fault of, you know, anyone working at the financial aid office or admissions office. It's just institutional priorities change. And so, um, kind of keeping a finger on the pulse around [00:17:00] that and reaching out to other counselors. Um, I mean, I'm always here. Would love to create kind of a community of learning around this as well.

And so, um, I will leave you with a best practice that I found was really helpful at my former school, was to centralize our undocumented student support. Um, maybe someone that with, you know, maybe an extra stipend per year can be sort of the point person for coordinating and triaging self disclosures as they come in.

You know, someone in the counseling office that, you know, That says, you know, I might I feel a little bit more confident with this. You know, anytime that you hear about a self disclosure, ask a student if it's okay, if you share it with me, a fellow counselor, and maybe we can, um, you know, put our heads together and really try to, um, come up with a plan and, uh, Yeah, road map for the student.

Obviously with the student present as well. And so it's always really nice when someone kind of steps in it up and into that role. Some departments might be too small for this, [00:18:00] but do think about centralizing. There's no danger to doing that. The only danger would be if you start sharing or making lists of student names and immigration statuses.

And I think we'll talk a little bit about that. Later, but there's no, no harm and no danger. Um, and having someone that your students know is sort of like the person that, you know, has the resources that maybe is partnering with their own counselor to kind of tag team. And so think about what that structure might look like at your own school.

And if you ever want to thought partner, how to do this offline chat with you as well. I know every context is different. So speaking of context, um, what is the larger context? And so, um, I always think of the U. S. immigration system, you know, from my layperson perspective, again, not a immigration lawyer, as just a real complex spectrum or [00:19:00] Patchwork really of statuses.

Um, it is with the ultimate goal, I think, for many immigrants, um, my, myself and my family included to eventually get to a place where you can be on a pathway to citizenship, right? That's the ultimate goal. Um, unfortunately, um, the U S immigration system is built in such a way that they're actually very, there's only one, one real, like.

sort of step by step process in which you become a citizen, which is to apply for a permanent resident card. And once you have that permanent resident card, you wait five, you can wait around five years, sometimes less, depending if it's through marriage or other things, and then you become a permanent resident.

a citizen. Sounds easy, right? The issue being that to get that green card, there are pathways to that, but not everything [00:20:00] leads to that. And I think that's, um, that's where we see the roadblocks for so many of us and our families and communities, is that it's not an A to B. The, you know, straight line, um, here in the U.

S. And so you will be working, you are currently working with students who might be in and out of statuses, potentially applying for a new status through, you know, with, with their family, or maybe they have a lack of status, completely undocumented and trying to see, you know, Perhaps through a legal screening, um, see if they're eligible to apply for something and you'll find that sometimes your students, your families will be in, uh, an immigration process.

Currently, perhaps they're already working with a lawyer and really they're working with a lawyer for a status and once they get that. That's great. But that still may [00:21:00] not lead right to a pathway to citizenship. So it's so complex. It's so patchworky. It is not black or white at all. And so I think you just knowing that as a practitioner is immensely useful and and sort of unless you really want to just realize, you know, I might not I might not be an expert on all of these things.

statuses and terms, but at least I know they exist. And that is step one. Um, and you might be more well versed than some of your colleagues. And so bringing this information back to them of at least when I hear students say, Oh, we have asylum pending. I might not know exactly what that means like down to a T, but I've heard of it before.

Right. Um, And I find that even a lot of my friends who have grown up with me as an immigrant don't know anything besides green card and citizen. And so as counselors, we will see it all. And it's good to at least recognize these names [00:22:00] of statuses and terms and at least know where to go to find more information.

And so some of these statuses, I'm sure in terms you've heard, you know, U. S. national, naturalized citizen, um, asylum granted, asylum pending, refugee, TPS, permanent resident, um, conditional permanent resident, humanitarian parole, which is very different than sort of, um, the, the criminal parole that, that Um, sometimes we hear about this is immigration, humanitarian parole.

Um, there's a new CHNV, the process for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans that, um, came through the Biden administration. Um, U Visa, J Visa, T Visa, other temporary visa. Um, DACA, family sponsored visas, Founds Against Women Act self petitioners, that, that it often leads to perhaps being able to apply to a permanent resident card.

We also have the Special Immigrant Juvenile [00:23:00] Status, um, which, um, a lot of, You know, recently arrived unaccompanied minors might be eligible for, and so all of these exist, but only a few lead to a pathway to citizenship. So if you have asylum pending, for example, you're getting Asylum. Okay, going Work authorization, and it's only until it's granted that you get a permanent resident card.

And so, um, kind of knowing the differences between the cards is super important to know that it's really the permanent resident card that you can see on the left that, you know, is kind of green, kind of blue green, um, is the one that kind of leads to that um, pathway to citizenship. Um, the one on the right is the employment authorization card, which is still amazing.

You know, if a student of yours has an employment authorization card, that means they can work, pay taxes, do all the things, um, and it's still great. [00:24:00] And yet, they're not going to be able to apply for federal financial aid. And so, Even just training up your team on the differences between these cards, always with a, with an empowering tone towards students, right?

Of, oh shoot, you know, it's not the green card, you can't apply for financial aid. is very different than, you know, let me see your card. Oh my gosh, that's great. You have an employment authorization card. You know, you can work with this, right? And file your taxes and all that. Um, and unfortunately, you know, let's talk through what benefits you have with this and some benefits you might not have with this and always put it in the context of, you know, you might be missing out on, you know, the 7, 000 ish dollars of, you know, income.

Pell grant, but you are eligible for all of this, you know, and all of this in Massachusetts can be tuition, equity, mass, all that stuff. And so these are the statuses that are eligible for federal aid. Um, you can see highlighted here [00:25:00] in. yellow. Um, you'll see that I highlighted humanitarian parole and the CHNV.

I highlighted the asterisks, um, because there are some people that enter the country through humanitarian parole that are eligible for federal financial aid, particularly someone with a Cuban Haitian entrant designation. And so, um, I say that all to say that It's not just citizens and permanent residents that can apply for, um, federal financial aid, but it's also this category of eligible, um, non citizens that goes beyond the permanent resident.

So, conditional permanent residents, like I 551Cs, um, refugee statuses, asylum granted. T visas. And like I said, some of the humanitarian parole entrance can apply for federal aid. And so if you're all any time wondering, um, what a student status is, you know, that's why self [00:26:00] disclosure matters. And once a student self discloses to you, you know, you've built their trust.

They know you're a safe person to go to. You can say, you know, you can tell me anything, anything that you tell me, unless you give me permission to share with someone else, just stays between you and me. The more I know, the more I can do to help. And when they self disclose, you know, you then can fact find way more with them.

And so if they tell you, you know, miss, um, I'm not a citizen. And so I don't know if I can go to go to college, or I don't know if I can apply for financial aid. Um, you say, well, Tell me more. Do you know, you know, do you know more about your status? And then they might say, actually, I don't know more about my status.

That might be where your counselor ears perk up and say, well, you know, if you feel comfortable with it now that you've shared this with me, could I talk to someone at home? Maybe, you know, I may, I don't know, you know, their mom lives at home with them. So maybe your mom might want to come in or, or. Help [00:27:00] on a phone call with us and maybe explain a little bit more of what what status you do have.

Um, and so never being afraid to fact find with your students and families. Once they self disclose to you. It's kind of like green light for you. Those conversations are extremely useful. Sometimes students don't know their own status. And so Kind of escalating it to a family member, bringing them into the conversation.

Is your next best course of action? Um, I had a student once who pretty much was telling me, I'm undocumented. I can't go to college. I can't apply for anything. And if I, you know, a few things that the student was saying to me weren't quite adding up and I thought, well, okay, like, yes, thank you so much for trusting me.

Thank you for sharing this with me. Um, you know, what do you know about your status? Have you, have you actually seen any paperwork? Um, well, my mom was working with a lawyer, but I don't know if anything came. From that or came of that. [00:28:00] Um, and so things like that that the student was saying was kind of flagging for me.

Oh, there might be something else here. And so that's when I kind of pulled out that line of, you know, thank you for trusting me. I can't wait to help you with this. We'll figure it out. Whatever comes your way. I'm here for you. Now that you've shared this with me. Can I like talk to your mom more? Do you mind if we talk to her more?

In fact, it turned out that family was actually going through asylum, and so they had asylum pending actually, and they had a court date coming up in about two and a half years, and the student had no idea. Um, and it was kind of a beautiful moment once I kind of heard that from mom and to say, well, actually, so I'm pending.

That's great. That means you probably have that employment authorization card. That's really, really cool. And this was before tuition equity. So having the employment authorization card, um, sort of meant that they could get in state tuition. So [00:29:00] that was a huge surprise for the family saying that, uh, or hearing that rather, um, And then knowing that their court date was two and a half years.

Um, in the future seems like a long time, but you know, the student and I, you know, had been coming up with a plan of saying, well, maybe you go to a two year college for a little bit. You get your credits, you're paying in state tuition. It's a lot cheaper. And then hopefully everything works well in two and a half years when you go to your court date and your asylum gets approved.

If your asylum gets approved, then you switch over to the permanent resident card. And once that happens, you can apply for federal aid and that might make transferring to a four year college that much easier. But that was a plan that I laid out with the student. Like I walked them through my thought process.

I made them part of the thought process. I had them ask lots of questions. We researched things together. You know, it was that I already knew all this. I kind of mapped [00:30:00] it out in my head. You don't have to. You could be learning along with the student or you could say to the student, I think I went to a training.

And I think there's something there. Can I get back to you in a day with maybe what I think could be a good plan and we can discuss it? In the meantime, maybe you reach out to me, to a colleague. You, you know, gut check your plan or you, you know, ask questions. You come back to the student, say, okay, I have more information.

So no matter where you are on the spectrum, I think there are ways to manage those conversations with students that in a way that, um, Are filled with hope, um, with sort of this like can do attitude, sort of this attitude of, you know, we're going to have to get creative, but we got this and you can be very vulnerable and saying, I don't know all the information.

But I know exactly, you know, I've been to trainings. I know exactly where I could fact find. Don't worry. I won't share your name or anything. Um, obviously, obviously this stays between us. I'll just fact find more of the general stuff and bring that back to in a few days [00:31:00] and always loop back with the student.

That's really, really important. Um, I also wanted to briefly mention the I 94 arrival departure records. Some of these statuses, particularly the hu, the parole statuses, um, you know, the new CHNV status. Um, asylum, or sorry, ref. Yeah. Um, there are a few others. Um, might enter the country and not have a physical card.

That looks like this, but instead they're going to have what's called an I 94 Arrival Departure Record that will share with whoever looks at it what, how they got admitted to the U. S., whether it was they applied for a parole, advanced parole, or, um, some sort of, um, refugee status. So these are sort of alternate forms of, um, documentation from the Department of Homeland Security and, you know, USCIS.

And [00:32:00] so, some students, um, might not know these exist, some students might have seen them, maybe they're stapled to their passport if they arrived when they were, um, very little, and they, and Department of Homeland Security still used the paper I 94s. But nowadays, if they're more recent arrivals, um, a lot of families will have the electronic I 94.

Um, in that case, it's not a physical thing, the student maybe has laid eyes on. So sometimes they might not know it exists. Um, and that again, this is where you can bring in the family. If you really are trying to fact find a little bit more on this, um, to just know that I 94s exist. Um, let me check the Q& A here.

Great. Yes. So I see a question in the chat about in state tuition with an employment authorization card. So this counselor or attendee has some students that, um, that are, [00:33:00] um, that have employment authorization cards who have not been considered for in state but do have employment authorization. Um, oh wait, I have some students who have not been considered for in state but do have employment authorization, not eligible for MASFA due to the length of time here.

Yeah, so they wouldn't be, this is a great question and it's really actually very important to sort of, um, separate. Tuition equity mass from plain old in state tuition, um, because I think a lot of people have heard about, um, the new tuition equity law and have said, Great, this is great. This is for all undocumented students.

And we'll go through this in a few slides. There are actually a few conditions that they have to meet, um, especially the fact that they, um, have to be considered a high school completer, which includes being enrolled at a U. S. high school or Massachusetts high school, um, for three years. [00:34:00] And so if the student is a very recent arrival and does not satisfy that high school completer status, they wouldn't be eligible to, um, to fill out a FAFSA and get that additional financial aid.

Um, and And though, also, the, the state has passed, um, resolutions in the past that have said that DACA students, TPS students, anyone with, um, an employment authorization card on a case by case basis, you have to talk to the, the, the college itself, can be eligible for in state tuition. So I would say this is a great, um, question because it, um, It separates the student from being eligible to apply for MASFA, but they could still get the in state tuition with no additional aid, of course, just the plain old in state tuition rate.

So I would say, um, fact find a little bit more, make sure their employment authorization card is still active. It hasn't expired. If it's about to expire, [00:35:00] have them work with whoever they worked with to try to get that, um, Back in in good standing. Um, and then for in state tuition at a public college, definitely, you know, send them a copy of your appointment authorization card.

Um, talk to the admissions office and definitely, you know, don't take no for an answer. I mean, sometimes I think, um, Policies vary from public college to public college, and maybe someone that you talk to on the phone initially might not know the answer to your question. My biggest advice would be to not give up, um, because for years, students that have had TPS, Employment Authorization Cards, DACA, have been eligible for in state tuition here in Massachusetts.

Hope that answered your question. Um, there's another question here. I'll answer it live. Um, what is a T visa? Um, a T visa, um, is a visa given to victims of human trafficking. Um, and if you go into the [00:36:00] USCIS website, this is the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, you can actually read all about that status.

Um, it's not super, super common, to be honest with you, in my 12 years of of direct service work. I've only come across maybe two, um, but it is the only visa that's eligible for, um, federal aid. Great questions everyone. Thank you. Um, I'm going to get to some ASFA questions in a few minutes, so stay tuned. Um, I will, I will answer that.

Thank you so much for putting that in. And so, All that to say, this is why self disclosure matters, right? We need to know what our student status is, but we can never ask. You take away one thing from this webinar is we can never ask them point blank, what is your status, right? But there are ways, like I've sort of tried to model with little tidbits of conversation where you can get students to, to tell you, you can [00:37:00] say, Do you have anything else you want to share with me?

Maybe you were just meeting them for the first time and say, Hey, is there anything else in your life and your situation that could help me help you better? And maybe they say no the first time, but maybe they see that you are really just persistent with them and they can trust you. And eventually they self disclose to you.

Um, and so self disclosure is something that I think we just need to do a better job of talking about, especially in high school. But this is, this kind of makes the case for me. Um, This graph shows national figures, not Massachusetts figures. We know there are only about 12, 000 people that are eligible for DACA in Massachusetts from almost 1.

2 million immigrants in Massachusetts. So there are so many more students out there with other statuses, a lack of status other than DACA, that need to be, need to feel safe enough to tell a trusted adult in their lives. It's hopefully a counselor about their status so that they can [00:38:00] get the help they need to combat all of that misinformation that's out there that they're hearing on a daily basis.

Even now, I have students That have told me, you know, I heard from a cousin that I cannot go to college, you know, I, I thought naively that we were beyond that, you know, especially in my community, but we, we aren't. Um, and so you can see that of all of the millions of undocumented individuals in the country, um, you know, they're around maybe two, 1.

5 million children under the age of 18 in the U. S. This is, I think. Way underestimated of those, you know, about a million are graduating from high school every year. And you should see the actual figures of that. It's like only about 10, 000 nationally that we know of. Actually graduate or sorry, actually enrolling in college like that's abysmal, right?

And that tells me that this that [00:39:00] those other thousands and thousands of students never self disclosed, never got the proper guidance and information to actually help them. You know, make those plans for themselves. So hopefully I've made my case for why self disclosure, um, really matters. Um, and so just remember for financial aid that the list of who is eligible for federal aid is actually unfortunately way smaller than that of who is ineligible, but that presents an opportunity to counsel those that are ineligible about all their other options.

And so it used to be 10 years ago that if a student was completely undocumented, that was just. a really, really hard situation because as a counselor, I didn't have a ton to present them with. Um, but now we do, especially here in Massachusetts. So this actually can be a very positive conversation. If they're ineligible for federal aid, you can still, you know, say, you don't get this, but you get all of this.

Let me explain to you all, all of these potential benefits here in Massachusetts. [00:40:00] Um, and so I do want to share this resource with you. It's called the IFAP. Um, this is a resource that financial aid administrators use in colleges. It's very technical. This is not student facing at all, but this could be high school counselor facing in that you could open this up when you get the slides.

And this is actually a guidebook for college financial administrators that provide examples like very visual, in color, Bright examples of all types of documentation that colleges can come across and immigration documentation that can show an administrator whether a student is eligible for aid or not.

So if you come across a student that, you know, shows you. a piece of paper you've never seen before, you know, read it carefully and then compare it to images that you can see on the IFAP. And it might be that they're eligible for federal [00:41:00] aid, especially the categories that are a little bit more nebulous, like humanitarian parole and Cuban Haitian entrance.

Um, sometimes they're given documents that look a little different than what I showed you here. And I only showed you four exemplars, you know, the two cards and the two I 94s. So this IFAP will be able to give you way more exemplars of different types of documentation. When I found this years and years ago, I just thought, Goldmine, um, and that, that is how actually I educated myself a while ago on all of these different types of documentation, um, uh, exemplars, um, that way it kind of demystifies it for, for you, um, so that, Um, you know, you have at least one, one resource you can consult in live or in the moment.

Um, in addition, obviously, to reaching out to other practitioners that may be able to help you if a tricky scenario comes across your desk. Um, how can we as counselors get access to IFAP info? Just click the link. Um, this is, [00:42:00] it's a PDF. So we all have access to it. It's not locked in, locked down. It's not behind a username and password wall.

It's literally just a PDF guide, uh, guidebook. So definitely click into this. Um, it is linked here for you. Um, and yeah, enjoy. If you enjoy the technical pieces of it, I think you'll enjoy looking through this. Um, thank you for, um, for that question. And so what does this mean for the FAFSA or CSS profile?

And so as, as you might already know, because I think the, um, the federal government, studentaid. gov has done a pretty, you know, pretty good job of disseminating tons of FAFSA information over the last year, especially around FAFSA simplification. So there's more information out there. Of course, you know, whenever, whenever the government is switching over a system, you know, it can be a bumpy road, but there is a lot of information out there now regarding the FAFSA.

So you might [00:43:00] already know, know what's being highlighted here, but only students with a social security number and considered eligible non citizens may apply and benefit from federal aid. And so this is, Sort of another checkpoint in your work with students where you might get a self disclosure where you might be getting to ready to fill out a FAFSA or create a StudentAid.

gov account, FSAID, and it may, it might come up in that moment, um, that, um, you know, this is our status, this is what we have. And so there might be these natural checkpoints for you as a counselor where you might just naturally get a self disclosure. Right around FAFSA time tends to be one of those. Um, so again, in that moment, it could feel really hard to say you're not eligible if they're not.

But I do caution against Saying that binary yes or no until you truly truly fact find. So if you're unsure in the moment, maybe just pause the conversation and say, Hey, can we actually can I get [00:44:00] back to you on this? Um, this is a card or ID that I've never seen before. You might be eligible. You might not.

Give me 24 hours. I'll come back, um, to you with information. And this would be a case where potentially a student has a social security number, but is not part of the eligible non citizens category. Um, and there, I know at my former school, there were many of these types of students every year. And again, you might, in that moment, feel like you're taking away, you know, federal aid.

But again, you're always also presenting them the state aid that could be available for them. If a student filling out the FAFSA has one or two undocumented parents, this process was new last year with FAFSA simplification. And this year, I, I truly think it will be better, um, because new users, so first time undocumented parents trying to fill out a FAFSA, um, will [00:45:00] still need to validate their identity using the knowledge based questions, right, that are generated through TransUnion in order to verify the information they're putting in for their FSA ID.

Or that student. gov account username and password. And so they'll still need to do that process if their identity isn't validated through TransUnion, the knowledge base questions. Then they still have to complete the manual process to validate their identity, which could take days or weeks. But the good news this year is that they're not going to have to wait for that identity validation to be finalized.

before they can actually complete their contributor FAFSA. So what I'm trying to say is they can start to create their, or they can create their FSA ID that same day, complete their contributor part of the FAFSA, submit that on one day, and their identity verification can still [00:46:00] linger and be continued afterwards.

And so it won't delay the process. Parents, it won't kind of give them this feeling of like, oh, you know, I'm here, but now I can't move on because they can't verify my identity. That won't matter. They can still move on. They can still submit their contributor. portion of the FAFSA, um, and the identity piece will come, um, and it could still be weeks before their identity is validated through the different, um, processes that exist, um, but that won't delay their actual, um, completion of their contributor form of the FAFSA.

So I think that's a huge, very positive shift this year. If you helped undocumented parents last year, you know how difficult that was. To, you know, get them to complete that FAID and then the contributor form. So now they can just complete the contributor form, get their FAID started, get all that going.

Um, and so, we'll, we'll see. But I, I'm really hopeful this will make it, um, a less [00:47:00] stressful process for, for undocumented parents. Um. Yeah, so, um, I had someone put, um, in the Q& A that they just went to the IFEP. It's now called the Knowledge Center Home. Yes, they rebranded it this year, but it's still all the same content.

So you'll be able to see, um, the different volumes of, um, Of information. It's a huge PDF. So we're really looking at volume one chapter two, which is the the the information around immigration statuses. So thank you for for clarifying that it is now called the Knowledge Center home, but all the information still there completely viewable for all of us to take advantage of.

Um, for the CSS profile, all students may apply to this. Please encourage your students, um, to be honest about their status. This is another great check point for students if they're, if they have been feeling uncomfortable about self [00:48:00] disclosing. Um, To their schools. The CSS profiles explanation special circumstances section is a great, very kind of low lift way for students to self disclose without having to talk to a person call.

They can just kind of. Sneak that in there, and it's still just as impactful for colleges. Um, colleges want to know the full story, and even though it's very scary sometimes for students to self disclose, um, as they're going through the process, it's better when students self disclose to colleges. Um, FERPA protects their information very firmly.

In my entire career, I have never heard of a college college. giving ICE or USCIS or DHE access to any student information. And so you can tell your students that, that it's very, very safe to do that. You can also tell parents that when it comes to filling out the [00:49:00] FAFSA if they're undocumented. You know, if it ever happened that a college violated the FERPA law, it would literally be on the CNN news that night.

You know, it would be, just an extreme violation of federal law. And it just hasn't happened. Um, and so I always kind of lead with that disclaimer if I'm feeling that families are feeling nervy about putting their information in the FAFSA or even the Common App or the CSS profile, um, it's just really important to keep sort of repeating that of like, There is a federal law that protects your information, um, colleges have never, you know, violated that, and if they did, they would be in mega trouble, you wouldn't be in mega trouble, um, but it just has never, ever happened.

There's another question in the chat that says, for students, or in the Q& A, for students with undocumented parents, the students can submit their portion that parents cannot, um, Will colleges [00:50:00] still be able to process that student's financial aid information and provide a financial aid package to that student?

Um, I think you mean, I think you mean the FAFSA for this question. Um, so what I guess what I'm saying is for students with undocumented parents, the students can submit their portion and new this year starting December 1st, undocumented parents will also be able to submit their portion without waiting for their identity to be earned.

Verified that same day. So I hope that your question actually becomes kind of is solved by this new process this year. Um, Matt. So thank you for asking that. Um, and yes, colleges will still be able to process the students financial aid information, but they will need that full, um, identity verification to be complete before packaging that student.

So they will still need to wait until all that happens, but it won't delay the actual filling out of the FAFSA. So [00:51:00] hopefully that answers your question there. Um, there's another question here. For a parent who is undocumented but the student is a U. S. citizen, how long do you anticipate that it will take for them to receive a functional FSA ID for 2024 25 while they simultaneously complete the manual process to validate their identity?

Um, so it depends on how long, um, so it depends on Um, they were able to answer the TransUnion questions or not. So if they're able to answer the TransUnion knowledge based questions, they will get their FCID immediately. If they need to resort to the manual process, it will depend on how quickly the processing center does that.

Um, I have heard from financial aid administrators and, um, sort of sources coming from, um, Department of Ed that it could be, you know, a few weeks before the manual process is completed. But again, that is not going to stand in the way, hopefully this year, with the [00:52:00] new process of them actually completing the FAFSA form.

You know what I mean? So the FAFSA form will be able to be submitted that same day that they started, um, and that's a huge shift, like monumental shift from last year, so that, um, that I think will, will just ease the user experience for families and students to say, all right, I'm like, you know, still waiting on my identity to be verified, but I can still put in all my tax info and I can still submit my parent portion.

Does that answer your question, Catherine? It's a very good question. And can I, can I just clarify to Andrea? Yeah, Julie. So in other words, the FSA ID, it will be functional, right? So because they can go through and complete the FAFSA, it just won't, nothing can formally happen until the identity happens.

That's right. Is that the word maybe that Catherine's trying to get at? That it will be [00:53:00] functional to allow them to complete the FAFSA. I see. Yes. No, exactly. Right. So the functionality piece will enable them to enter it and press submit on their contributor FAFSA form. And so that will allow the FAFSA to just be done, completed.

will get sent to the colleges, the processing centers, but the colleges themselves, the financial aid offices won't be able to formally move along through the packaging of a student until that identity process is complete. Perfect. I just wanted to clarify. Yeah, Julie, that was so helpful. Thank you so much.

Hopefully that answered, um, your question, Catherine. Thank you. Um, so I just wanted to double down a little bit before I talk about MASF and I know we only have a few minutes left. But, um, that self disclosure needs to happen. It needs to happen earlier. But, um, just please, you know, if you want to print this slide out, [00:54:00] share it with your teams.

Um, just another reminder that it, um, It is very dangerous for counselors to, you know, think that they can ask a student what their immigration status is. It is completely not allowed, and it's Plyler v. Doe from the 1980s federal law that protects a student's right to privacy, um, when they're in the K 12 education system.

But once students self disclose, counselors can bring it up respectfully and appropriately as needed for the college process. So always avoid writing emails with sensitive information. Don't keep a written list anywhere. So as you're guiding students through the FAFSA, through CSS Profile, you know, if they've already self disclosed to you once, that's kind of green light.

To kind of continue the process. If you suspect that a student might be not self disclosing to you, and you know, it's senior year, it's coming up on FAFSA time, and you're like, gosh, like, I just, I [00:55:00] sense, but I don't know. There's not really nothing you can do about that, right? You can't ask them. So there's nothing directly you can do about that, but there are many things you can do indirectly to hopefully give students that peace of mind that says I'm a safe person.

I can, I can do this. I can self disclose to my counselor. And so I've included two resources here. The first is mschools. org. Um, again, these, um, You know, please use these resources when you get copies of the slide deck and in schools has a has great resources when it comes to different ways that you can talk about saving inclusive spaces in your in your office or in your classrooms.

They have great exemplars for. posters that you can have up, um, that sort of declare that this is a safe space. And then our artwork, you know, if you're someone that expresses yourself through art or [00:56:00] color or images, um, there's so many great artists out there, undocumented or immigrant artists or allies that are putting out great work.

One such example is Fabiana Rodriguez, um, who is one of the first artists to depict the butterfly as a symbol for immigration and she has some great posters and things on her website. So especially as you're coming up on December 1 and FAFSA, you know, if these visual cues are not already part of your life in your department, um, please make them that, um, over the next few weeks so that hopefully you can get a few self disclosures before FAFSA season.

And always model openness and inclusivity. So as you're working with students, you know, um, and they've just self disclosed, you know, sometimes just including them into your own learning. There are two resources on this slide. One's from the Higher Education Immigration Portal. And the other one is from the Education Trust.

Um, they're [00:57:00] both comprehensive tools that allow you and your students, perhaps especially seniors, who are definitely old enough to handle all this, to see what the different laws are in Massachusetts versus other states, to see which schools might give a little bit more aid than others. Um, so these two are just great resources to have, um, at your disposal to, um, enable students to, I don't know, open up more once they've self disclosed to say, okay, I'm ready to enter this world of self disclosure with my trusted adult.

Include them in your learning as they're going through. I know seniors oftentimes are very wrapped up in what they're doing for applications, but I find that they're also very, um, open to Learning more about their identity, and especially if it's something they've kept very close to their chests. Um, having a trusted adult that they can go to, to kind of learn more about their own identities, um, can be very valuable.

So, both of these tools are really great for [00:58:00] adults, but can also be student facing maybe with the older students as well. And so I'm going to close, um, for the last, like, maybe five minutes, if you all can stay for an extra five minutes, um, about tactical resources, um, for Massachusetts. So to kind of piggyback on our financial aid slides, to kind of continue on.

continue that into the Massachusetts kind of specific stuff. Um, again, there is no federal law that prohibits any immigrant with any immigration status from applying to or attending higher education institutions. You need to make a poster of that and put it in your counseling office. Um, please do so. Um, Now more than ever, I'm seeing colleges include DACA undocumented sections on their websites, and that's a great way to include seniors in their process too.

Once you've created a list for them, if you, you know, have included some colleges that you have heard are undocu friendly or maybe some wildcards, maybe you can have a little [00:59:00] key in your list. That you've made for a student to say, maybe, like, question mark, I'm sure about this one, let's research this one together.

You can encourage seniors to do their own research, to go on their school's website, to say, hey, are they outwardly undocu friendly? Do they have website, or like, pages within their website that share more information about what they're doing to be undocu friendly? And that is, I found a great way to engage seniors in their own, um, application process.

Um, and I can, and I think another thing, especially here in Massachusetts, we're really lucky, um, you know, in terms of how colleges are spaced geographically, um, talking, we're talking really openly about financial aid and a student's interest in openness to living at home and commuting versus living on campus, um, can save a fully undocumented student thousands of dollars.

And so starting that. [01:00:00] Conversation sooner rather than later saying, what are your thoughts on living at home versus living on campus? Maybe doing a cost comparison chart and including some of those options closer to home on their list. So really making that list building collaborative with the students saying, okay, I put these options, they're closer to home.

I know you're on the fence about living at home, but let's look at some prices if you really, you know, don't want to after that, we can cross it off. Um, so make that kind of a point of discussion, uh, with your students. And if you can, include a ton of in state public options in your students list. So as we know, tuition equity has arrived in Massachusetts.

Finally, for a very long time, Massachusetts was not caught up to other states in this department. And so what tuition equity is, it's an extended benefit for in state tuition and financial aid to undocumented students. [01:01:00] So to reference the question that we had earlier, you know, if a student has already been here, has an employment authorization card, they have Potentially been eligible to get in state tuition already in Massachusetts.

Um, and this happened many years ago with DACA. Um, Massachusetts was actually one of the first states to say, Okay, DACA students can get in state tuition at public colleges. But it was just DACA students. And then it started to kind of fan out into, Okay, other students with work, work authorizations. But with this, this truly makes us undocu friendly, where it now extends that in state tuition, um, benefit to undocumented students as well.

So here's what you do to get in state tuition, right? So any student has to satisfy one of these two categories. Any student in the Commonwealth. They either have to be a U. S. citizen, lawful immigrant, or permanent resident. And if they're not, [01:02:00] then Massachusetts has this new term called high school completer status.

So this is brand new terminology that didn't exist before this year um, under the tuition equity law. And I've linked, um, resources here so you can read more about High School Completer. What this means is students must meet the following criteria. They have to attend high school in the commonwealth for no less than three years.

Um, they have to graduate from a high school in the commonwealth or earn the equivalent, so the HISET or any other type of um, high school completion program. And then they have to sign and submit a paper affidavit. Um, if they do all these three things, They, and satisfy all three requirements, they are then eligible for a tuition equity.

The paper affidavit states their intent to apply for citizenship within 120 days of eligibility. Now this is solely a legal requirement for the state of Massachusetts to say, [01:03:00] hey, we know you can't apply for this right now, we know you're undocumented, but if there ever was a moment where you could be eligible.

to apply for citizenship. We just want you right now to tell us that you would. Do you see? So it's a little bit like forward thinking and it's a legal document. I'm sure an immigration attorney would be able to tell you, you know, the many reasons why this is, um, needed. to protect both the student colleges and the state, um, at the federal level.

But basically, this is just an intent to say, if I'm ever eligible in my future as a student, you know, I'm 18 right now, but when I'm 25, I get the opportunity. There's a chance for me to, you know, get on a pathway to citizenship. I will do it in good faith. I'm telling you, I will do it. It's kind of a weird concept to explain to high schoolers, to be honest.

Um, and so I just encourage you to kind of use those lay terms I just used [01:04:00] to say this is just a good faith sort of document. It does feel scary though, right? Because And there are some reasons why maybe this isn't the best way to do this, but this isn't really the time to go into that. We know it's a requirement, so now as counselors all we can do is coach students to understand at least surface level why this is a requirement and why it's not scary to sign such a document so that they're eligible to receive tuition equity.

This is the piece that I have found completes sort of that package, the tuition equity package for a student. And this is the, the piece that I found can often slow a student down. They have questions about the affidavit, they have to sign a paper copy of it, um, send it off. Um, and so this can often slow down the process.

So the earlier that you start talking to your undocumented students about the process for potentially being eligible for tuition equity, the better. [01:05:00] Um, you know, sometimes parents have questions. What, what are we signing? What is this? Can I show it to my lawyer? Of course you can. Again, give them that sort of high level explanation.

This is just sort of a, a good faith forward thinking document. It's a requirement, but it doesn't mean that you're going to be bound to this, that if you don't do it, you're, you're doing something wrong. This is just a way to sort of, Protect all parties involved at the federal level. I hope that helps. I know that's a, that's an odd little thing to explain to, to seniors and their parents.

Um, but yeah, but I think that's the sort of the best, um, sort of. Vibe that I can come up with when you're faced with. Um, students and families looking at you saying we're, we're afraid to fill this out. Um, there's a question in the Q and a saying regarding the new mass educate program. So let me go to that slide.

Um. One of the eligibility criteria is that the applicant must complete the FAFSA. [01:06:00] What can I document students who are not FAFSA eligible due to qualify for free community college. Thank you so much for asking that. So, um. You can see here that the requirements are complete the FAFSA, but then the sub bullet is students who are not eligible to complete the FAFSA, but are approved as a high school completer can complete the MASFA and still attend for free.

And so for students who are not eligible to fill out the FAFSA. You know, it used to be that before they were, they would become a little disengaged, they would say, you know, well, then I guess I'm not doing anything right now. But now we have this kind of replacement to say, well, while your friends are doing the FAFSA, why don't you start working on your MASFA?

Um, and the MASFA for this upcoming cycle is not, um, out yet, but it will be very soon. They can still create their profile on the MASFA, they can still start printing out the affidavit. Um, they can still start doing [01:07:00] things to get set up to actually submit the MASFA. Um, once they, once they can. Um, and so that is what undocumented students can do to qualify for this free community college.

But remember that they do have to be also, um, considered a high school completer. So those three years in high school, um, graduate from a Massachusetts high school or get the equivalent, um, high school completion status.

Great. So yeah, so the mass educate again. It's great. Um, it's for any student with no previously earned bachelor's degree. So all of our seniors would qualify seniors in high school. It covers all course related tuition and fees. And it can offer an additional stipend of up to 1, 200 per academic year. So definitely encourage all of your undocumented students to fill out a MASFA.

Even if you're not sure yet if they are a high school completer or not, [01:08:00] that can be an ongoing conversation with your student. Um, that can be something that you engage them with throughout the process to say, Okay, when did you arrive exactly at this high school? How long have you been here? You know, it's an ongoing conversation.

It's not ever going to be black or white, but hopefully with these new state programs, there's more to offer students. There's more to talk through. There's more hope. Um, and so I found that even if a school student in the end, you know, maybe they just arrived last month, are not eligible to be a high school completer, that there's still, you know, lots of good things to share when it comes to options for maybe a younger sibling, um, or maybe they could still do, um, you know, in state tuition if they have a work permit.

And so, um, As amazing as free community college sounds, there are still stipulations that will affect certain students, [01:09:00] um, especially the more recent arrivals, the more recent newcomers, um, and so that, so it's again, not a perfect, um, fix all for everyone. And I think that needs to be said, um. And also, you know, that can be something that you and your teams talk about, um, you know, how many recent arrivals do we have?

Do we have any, um, students that won't have completed three years at our high school? And what can we do proactively to encourage them to still, you know, engage in school, to still pursue their dreams? Um, and To do all of that. So again, it all ties back to that self disclosure, you know, the earlier, you know about these students, the more you can start to forward plan, um, for them, especially if you know that they're not going to end up being a high school completer, um, at your school.

Okay, I'm going to wrap up pretty soon, um, only because we're over [01:10:00] time and thank you. To the many of you that have stayed, even though we've gone about 10, 10 minutes over time. Um, I just want to also share a few resources for students for scholarships. You know, in the case that you have a student that doesn't qualify for high school completer status, maybe they came two years ago to your school.

But still, you know, they're working hard on their English. They want to go to college, whether it's a two year, four year or other type of short certificate program. And there, there's still a lot out there that you can do with them to counsel them to actually make that a reality. Um, immigrants rising has a great scholarship resource guide.

It has, um, an interactive filter tool that you can use to look at scholarships that don't require a citizenship. Status dreamers road map app has been a big hit for students recently that I know just because it's an app on their phone. They can kind of filter through. It's a little easier for them to use on their own than than a website.

And [01:11:00] then Maldive has a great PDF resource guide guide as well. Um, I also want to, uh, highlight Immigrants Rising for another purpose. So not only do they have a great scholarship program, but they also have great informational resources for students, especially the older students, including, um, guides on how to work for yourself.

So how to become independent contractors. So this might be a student map. Is completely undocumented, doesn't have a work permit yet, maybe they're working to go to legal screening to see if they are eligible for any options, but in the meantime, they still want to go to school. They want to get a degree in marketing or digital design design or really anything that they could work for themselves with.

So oftentimes, you know, majors like health, medical, um, professions might be really hard for a student if they don't have a, [01:12:00] uh, a work authorization, but other professions might be much easier, um, for students who are fully undocumented, um, because they can become independent contractors. Um, and so Immigrants Rising has a great guidebook that I've actually shared with many of my fully undocumented high school seniors, um, and they come back to me saying, wow, I had no idea I could work on this.

for myself, that I could still file taxes, that I could still, you know, have a business ID, do all this work for myself, earn money. And so there are some ways for, you know, that smaller portion of students that even after MassEducate, after TuitionEquity are still in this like hard spot of saying, well, I might not be eligible for, you know, certain things, but I can still, you know, go to school part time.

I can still go to a shorter degree seeking program. I can still work for myself. So I wanted to highlight that especially because I [01:13:00] think it often goes unsaid in high school counseling offices, but it's something that can give students a lot of hope. Um, so definitely, um, look into all of these resources.

If I didn't get to your question, I am going to make sure I follow up with you, um, one on one and I'm always here as a resource. If you need anything, um, you can connect with us on social media, but you can also email me directly if you'd like at akinan. MEFA. org. Um, we also have a college planning team.

You can send more sort of General inquiries there collegeplanningatMEFA. org. Um, thank you all so much for joining. Um, I know we went a little over time. Again, this could be a whole multi day workshop. So we try to fit in a lot in, you know, just over an hour. Um, there might still be a lot of lingering things, but hopefully this will get you started on, on a good, um, on a good path.

So thank you all for joining. Um, and we'll see you next time. Stay in touch. [01:14:00] Okay.