MEFA Institute: Supporting Undocumented Students in the College Planning Process

 Equity laws. Um, there's a huge update coming out of Massachusetts. Um, this has passed recently, um, and went into effect, um, a few months ago, and things are still coming out of this. Um, we don't have all of the facts clearly laid out, but we know it went through, we know it's a thing, um, and undocumented students will now be able to receive in state tuition at public campuses.

This is huge, and so I'll, um. Touch upon this as well. This just opens up an incredible avenue that we have just never had before in the state. Um, so this is another reason why the tone of these slides, um, are is a little bit different this year. And I'm really excited about that. So I think to counteract sort of Especially the first two pieces, the, the uncertainty with financial aid and so many questions swirling around what that's gonna be like, and um, families asking questions about, uh, financial aid and FAFSA and all of that.

But also the affirmative affirmative action piece, um, the counselors are really interested in, and of course, tuition equity. My theory, um, in this work as a practitioner is that in order to kind of combat all of that, all that buzz and uncertainty and questions, um, we need to have an antidote for, for that and be ready to, um, support our students.

And so. So many of my presentations in the past 10 years have focused around reactive support. So once you know about something for a student, this is how you might react. Or once you know that a student, um, wants to apply to college, these might be the ones that you suggest to them, which is great. And being reactive is a part of this, but, um, my My offering for you is that, um, we need to be proactive and kind of usher in this new era of just being open about talking about this population.

So much of my work in the last 10 years has been reactive, but it's also, um. been talking to counselors who are just frankly kind of like scared to talk about this. I mean, it's, it's a identity being undocumented is an identity that is invisible, but it's really hard because it's tied to legal matters.

So that's why people, uh, trusted adults, people that care about their students don't necessarily want to talk about this openly because they're afraid that they might say something wrong, might harm the student in some way, because this identity is so deeply tied. To a legal piece right of their life.

And so that sometimes stops us from being really open or tackling this head on. And I think Given what we know now the discourse of the last four or five years, there's just a little bit more of an openness around this population and so I want to kind of like seize on that and encourage all of us to use these three grounding practices that I'm going to present to you today.

The first. Is you're doing it right now, basically is having, trying at least sharing some resources or if you have come from a smaller community, smaller school, smaller organization, have every counselor teacher, E-L-L-E-S-L, teacher, coach, advisor, at least familiar with the fact that there are immigrant students.

Undocumented students within your population, even just a general landscape. Um, and then work to know your local landscape. So, so much of what I'll offer today is sort of this overarching view, um, macro level in a way. But let's go actually on in your town. So for example, in my town where I work, and where I spent so much of my time, I can tell you that we have some beautiful families immigrating from Morocco, every single week that we have a huge uptick in the Brazilian population that are coming in with.

Various different immigration statuses that might be completely different. It's happening in your towns. And so once you kind of have a sense of that overarching landscape, going down to a micro level, and really interrogating what you know about your community. That's the first step. If you can do that, even just the next week or so just.

Try to get a grasp on like what you've seen the trends that you've heard about in your hyper local context that will go along. Um, my second best practice is that self disclosure is important. And this is a way that we are proactive nowadays instead of just reactive in order to maximize resources, um, for your students and time.

For your college applicants, especially. And so what I mean by self disclosure is What the act of a student coming forth of their own accord and telling you or anyone in your school that they're undocumented or sharing details about their immigration status. So they are initiating that contact. And once they do that, it is a green light for you to then ask fellow questions and help them and have it just be out in the open between you and them.

Self disclosure, I've come to realize as a practitioner on the ground, is at the very core of providing Save comprehensive support and timely support for our undocumented population. And it's, it goes, it echoes that statement that I was sharing of let's just be open about this, you know, let's, let's try to encourage, um, our communities to not just be so hush hush about this, um, this community and this population, but actually, 灾災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災災 災災災災災災災災災災災災災 Take take the lead and saying, Hey, like we need to talk about this.

Let's make our community more docu friendly, and that will therefore send messages to your students that it's a safe place to self disclose. You don't want to force students to self disclose but if they feel it genuinely that this is a safe space, they will self disclose, and they'll self disclose earlier, maybe in ninth grade maybe in 10th grade, and the sooner counselors know about a student situation.

The more resources that could pour into that student more targeted resources. There's nothing worse than having a February senior finally self disclose, because at that point you only have a few months left, you could have. Given them so many more resources, you could have potentially even curated their college list in a different way.

Um, and so we want earlier self disclosures. Um, and so don't be afraid to, um, seek sort of. thought partnership and help for how you can make your community more undocu friendly and therefore invite students to self disclose. This is also so important because even if they're not undocumented, some might have a non citizen status that is still tricky.

Uh, tricky for financial aid, tricky for college applications. Maybe they have temporary protective status, TPS, it affords them a social security card. But not, it's not the equivalent of like, say a green card, a permanent resident card. And so if they're self disclosing, even though they might not be saying I'm undocumented, they might still be giving you information that is going to be so crucial to helping them plan for their post secondary life.

Or they might come from a mixed status family, which will impact their financial aid process. Right. So if they're they themselves are citizens, but their families, um, their mom or their dad, guardian is undocumented. That will also help you help them better. So love self disclosure and I'll give you some tips for how to make sure that it's done safely.

Um, For the students. And then lastly, just talking about immigration, especially around the college application process should be something that we're all really open about, you know, I've kind of touched upon this feeling throughout the last like 10 minutes, but it really can't I cannot stress enough how important it is to myth bust whenever possible.

Don't stay silent. But also. This is important too. No answer is better than the wrong answer. So if, uh, if a student of yours is finally self disclosed and you're helping them, thought partner, you're thought partnering with them on how to, um, craft their college list or something like that, and they ask you a question and you're feeling really open and you're like, this is, we're jiving, this is great.

They ask you a question that you don't know the answer to. I cannot stress the importance of saying, I don't know. You know what I'm on this journey with you and figure it out. I will make sure we get an accurate answer for this. Accuracy is so important when it comes to this population, it can be the difference between they're eligible to apply for something versus not being eligible to apply for something.

And if you're not sure, it's okay to say no, I don't know now but I'll find out the answer for you and that's an opportunity for you to learn and to grow. You know, once you say bye to the student, send me an email, send colleagues an email, try to fact find, and then go back to the student with the correct answer.

That will go so far when it comes to preserving the trust that students entrust in you when They self disclose to you, and you want to make sure that you protect that trust and that relationship. Get ready to get creative. And so the more that you learn, the more that you talk to your students, the more that you're game planning with them, and you're giving them also the opportunity to view their post secondary path as not just a linear thing, but as a thing that they can get creative about.

Maybe you help them plan out a plan A. This would be my top choice plan. My plan B, my plan C, fact of the matter is sometimes undocumented students can't get everything they want right away because of their status. Maybe the finances really, um, are not going to be working out for them initially, or maybe their status precludes them from applying to certain scholarships.

And so it's important to Um, have those open pathways with them of conversation and encourage them to see their future as full of possibility, but also a future that they have to map out a little bit more carefully and more creatively than their documented peers. I'm going to pause right there and just have.

I don't just give people like a moment to just like soak that all in three grounding best practices. I'm going to review each one in a little bit more detail and the rest of the presentation, but just again want to remind you to put in questions in the chat, just anything that's coming to mind. There's You know, even or even just an observation of comment.

I'll be, um, I and Sean will be checking those throughout the presentation, um, to make sure that we get some of your voices in here as well. Um, and I don't see any questions yet. Um, thank you all for hanging in with me and let's go. Let's start. So I just want to again echo. We want safe, we want productive, and we want rich planning when it comes to this population.

They need to know that their process might look a little different, but that there's still so much out there for them. They need to know that. And sometimes you're the only, as a counselor, you might be the only person in a position to tell them that. There's a lot of There are a lot of myths out there in terms of what undocumented students can or can't do.

And some of those myths sometimes are perpetuated by their communities, their own communities, their own neighborhoods, their own families. Um, I, I have a family member, for example, who is, um, has a complex immigration status, and sometimes I hear that family member saying, oh, I can't do that, I'm undocumented, or I can't do that.

I, and I have to kind of step in with love. With care and say, no, you can, you can't do that. You can do this. You just have to get creative. And so we want safety. We want productivity. We want to create a post secondary plan, but the only things, not the only things, but the two major things that lead to that is student self disclosure and a counselor baseline knowledge and myth busting.

So you are all on your way and you're probably all doing this already. So if we want to deep dive a little bit into number one, um, Okay. You know, having yourselves, your immediate colleagues, anyone that you know that interacts with this population at your school or your organization to just have more awareness.

It definitely starts with you. I mean, you're here, you're putting in the work, model speaking about immigration that will help your students own their story and their voice. Their story is their superpower. I know that sounds a little corny, but it really is. But on that vein, on that note. don't necessarily encourage them to write about this in their college essays if they're not ready to.

I have, for example, I have my own immigration story that goes back to the early 90s. Um, and you might think that as someone who is in their 30s, I might be ready to talk about every part of my story. Um, and I'm not, there are things that are painful. There are things that have been hard. Not everyone's at the same point to own their story.

And that's me in my 30s with lots of Um, more experiences under my belt, and I can only imagine, or actually I know what a 15, 16, 17, 18 year old might be thinking when they see the Common App prompts, and they might feel forced to write about something hard that has happened in their past. And for many undocumented students, especially their journeys of coming over here, may have been really difficult.

They may have been scary. They may have even been violent. They may have been joyful. Maybe they just got on the plane and got here. You, you don't know, you don't want to assume, but you can ask, you can say, what's coming to mind when you hear this prompt? What, what are the different stories that you might be able to tell?

And if it seems that, that if a, If it seems that the student is ready to talk about certain things, then they're lucky to have you as a trusted adult that can help them navigate complex feelings as they're writing their essays or their supplements. Some might not be ready to, or might be almost on the cusp of being ready to share some of their story or identity if it feels right to them, or some essay prompts.

But they might be ready with a little processing. They might want to include some of their experiences in their application. If it's part of the story, they want to tell this is particularly salient this year with what we know, um, has the sort of come about with the affirmative action decision. We know now that applications are going to not are not going to ask directly about certain aspects of students identities so oftentimes the essays and other open ended moments in the application will be where students will showcase.

Um, stories that, um, that have impacted them. And so I have heard of counselors being very strategic about certain aspects of the application. Um, and we should be, um, but just handle with extra care when it comes to this population. Um, it's not a given that, that these are the stories they, they want to tell.

But it is their superpower. So you can play a part in helping them unearth some of their learnings and some of the things that have really touched them throughout their journeys, be it with immigration, but any other aspects of their lives. That's a really valuable thing. And they're all so lucky to have you all in their lives.

Um, so knowing about, you know, knowing about this population, feel free to share these slides with with folks in your lives. You know, this population will only keep growing. Um, so many of us immigrate here from so many different countries. And these are figures courtesy of the Pew Center. I've been using versions of these figures for a little while, and I reckon that these are vastly underestimated.

We've got about 11. 2 million undocumented immigrants of all ages living the US. That's probably very low balled 1. 1 million. Undocumented Children under the age of 18 living in the U. S. Of those 65, 000 graduating high school every year and of those only about 7 to 13, 000 are enrolling in college, not saying college is the only pathway.

Um, I work in a department that celebrates all pathways to your college trades, apprenticeships, um, direct employment, but if they want to go to college, they should be able to go to college. Right? So I'm sure that more than 7 to 13, 000 undocumented students out of the 65k want to go to college. Then why are they not going?

And so many things play a role in that. Misinformation, um, them not being encouraged, them not having trusted adults that have the knowledge to help them through this. It's a really stark statistic. You know, and it's something that I think we all have a privilege and a power to be able to shift in our own communities.

It takes on average 10 to 16 years for a skilled worker to even get on the pathway to citizenship or become a citizen. So what I mean by a skilled worker, and I've linked here more information, is someone potentially with an advanced or very niche degree that gets brought over to the U. S. to, um, facilitate a certain, um, initiative here.

They get given, um, some sort of, um, provisionary immigration status. And then, then maybe eventually they can get on a pathway to citizenship. So these are, uh, usually highly educated individuals. And for them, it even takes 10 to 16 years. So the U S as you know, has very strict exclusionary immigration.

practices. It's one of the most strict countries in the world. So if it's 10 to 16 years for, on average, for a skilled worker to even dream of getting on a pathway to citizenship, it's going to be so much longer, if ever, for anyone else. So this is why the push for comprehensive reform matters at the national.

And the local level, especially, and I think something that underscores this beautifully is what has recently happened in Massachusetts with the tuition equity loss that has been years in the making by local organizations, grassroots organizers locally. Going to the state house, asking for signatures, using their voices to make change.

And even though tuition equity is not comprehensive immigration reform, it's something that benefits this community. And so I often say to people that I talk to in my community, that really the power to help The power to affect change starts at the local level. It starts at your schools. Um, are there certain dual enrollment programs that you can partner with private schools, private colleges for that don't require social security number for your students to join and to get access to those courses.

So there's little things like that, that sometimes it's easy to feel helpless. You know, I'm just one person. I'm in my school. I'm busy. We all are so busy. This is such a busy, hectic profession. It's such a great way to spend our days, but they're busy, hard days. Sometimes you don't have the time to think about other initiatives, but when you do have the time.

I encourage you to think about little ways, tiny ways, low lift ways, maybe at the start that you can, um, affect change for this population. I mentioned dual enrollment. That's an easy one that comes to mind, um, because most, a lot of counselors or school administrators don't know that they might have the power to advocate for certain dual enrollment programs that are partnering with Private institutions where there won't be there wouldn't be any social security questions for students, or there might be funding that you know your school has that they're trying to allocate it and you might be at a meeting where that's being decided you could be the person say, Hey, what about for this?

What about for this population? So we all have so much power. And I'm just grateful that you all here are interested and willing to use it. I do see that we have. Um, a question. Um, thank you so much for asking it. This is about four minutes ago. So, um, let's see, um, and hopefully I can answer it right now.

So our scholarship program requires students to provide a student aid report. What other comparable documents can we ask of undocumented students? We use the FAFSA to verify residency in Western Mass and their expected family contribution to college tuition. We prioritize low income students, but we need documentation to verify income.

Also, we don't want to ask for W 2s or bank docs. Any suggestions would be helpful. That's a really good question. Um, thank you for asking it. I'm curious, and maybe you can, um, add a little bit more context. You said our scholarship program, so I'm assuming that you're writing about Um, being part of a private scholarship fund that gives students money and you're thinking about ways that you can be inclusive and get the information you need from this population without needing the student aid report.

Am I understanding that correctly? So maybe you can, um, give me a little bit more context and I'll get back to your question. That's a really good question. Thank you for asking it. Um, all right. So when, when thinking about advocating for these students, you know, sometimes we use very binary language. We say citizen, we say undocumented, but there really is a spectrum of statuses in between.

And I think that my message, my overall message for all of you as you don't, please don't feel like you have to be an expert on all these status. Um, you know, I've lived all of this. I've been in this for about a decade now, and I still don't know the ins and outs of every status on here. But what's important for you in this moment and on your journeys toward being allies is just knowing that this Texture exists, knowing that it isn't just citizen undocumented.

That there's a whole layer textured ecosystem within that, that our young people are navigating. Um, and if maybe not for themselves, they see family members navigating, they're part of that. And it can be very un um. very scary. It can be overwhelming for them. Um, but you knowing that these things exist will at least allow you to ask more questions to try to eventually, you know, help them get to whatever path they want to get to.

And so you've heard, I'm sure of different us nationals, naturalized citizens. Um, these are people like me that immigrate to the U S eventually get on a pathway to citizenship and eventually can get. Can become a naturalized a citizen. That is the hope for many people that immigrate to the U. S. To get on a pathway that will eventually lead them to become a citizen.

That is extremely hard to do with the way our immigration laws are written. And so what ends up happening is people are in this country weaving in and out of being undocumented or maybe having visas or maybe having different statuses. And some of these eventually will lead to pathways. Are a pathway to citizenship, but many of them do not.

You have what's called an I 94, which is not an actual status, but I put it in here because a lot of statuses give out I 94s, um, arrival departure records, and some of our young people have I 94s as proof of their immigration into the United States. And so sometimes if You ask them, hey, well, are you, like, once they self disclose to you, you might ask them, all right, so, like, do you have any paperwork?

Do you have any, um, authorization, social security cards, I 94s? Like, what, what do you have? Um, I'd love to know so that I can help you, um, figure out whether you're eligible for FAFSA or not. So just, even having these terms in your lexicon will be really, I promise you, game changing in your interactions with students.

Then you've got, um, asylum as a status. Um, and it's important to differentiate between asylum granted and asylum pending. Um, there are some students that have applied for asylum or their families, um, and them have applied, but that's still pending. They might have a court date a few years into the future.

In the meantime, they're given a work authorization, a social security number, but it's They won't know their asylum is actually granted until that court date, you know, years into the future. So there is a difference between asylum pending, asylum granted. So another example is, you don't have to know the intricacies of this exactly, but just knowing it exists.

If you hear a family tell you, oh, we have asylum, you could say, great, uh, congratulations. Like that's, that's a big thing. You probably worked really hard for that. Um, yeah. Has it been granted? Is it a done deal? Or are you still waiting to have that court date? And the difference between a yes or no there could be a difference between them being able to file a FAFSA or not.

And we'll get into that a little bit more. Um, refugee status, um, we've heard about that. It's similar to asylum. There's just some differences in terms of when they're applying for the status, whether they're in or outside of the United States. Um, once refugee and asylum Services have been granted, they get a permanent resident card.

So that's the game changer right there, right? Going from having a work authorization, which is still great allows you to work and file taxes in the US upgrading that to a permanent resident card or green card. Is a huge difference. Um, because now having that green card, that permanent resident card. Now you're able to file a FAFSA.

Now you're able to get federal aid. Um, so that's, that's exciting for families that are on that journey. There's temporary protective status. Um, with this was in the news a lot, uh, a few years ago with the Trump administration, there were some things with certain TPS status is being revoked for certain countries.

This is a type of status that gets renewed and we'll talk a little bit about. This in a future slide permanent resident, of course, um, the green card holders conditional permanent residents. There's also TV says you visas Jane F visas. You might hear about other temporary visas different action for childhood arrivals.

I want to be clear. This isn't an actual status. It's just an exemption from deportation, but it's important because there are many DACA holders, um, out and about doing their thing, living their full lives, being able to work, uh, file taxes, but it's a tough thing to have because they have to renew it every two years.

And it's not an actual status with a pathway to citizenship. It is simply an exemption from deportation. So definitely a complex there as well. Family sponsored visas, uh, violence against women act, self petitioners. That's a type of, um, process that is very closely linked to immigration as well. Um, special immigrant juvenile status.

And finally undocumented. So a lot of nuance, a lot of texture, um, and we'll get into some of the nitty gritty in a little bit, um, where some of these statuses are concerned. Um, someone asked if someone had a social security number and work authorization, but it's still waiting for permanent residency to process.

Can they fill out a FAFSA? That's a really good question. Thank you for asking that. The short answer is no, they have to have their permanent resident status approved for them to be able to fill out a FAFSA. But that doesn't necessarily mean waiting for the green, the actual, you know, hard green card to arrive in the mail.

What that means is they have to have made it to the end of their process, been granted that status. have had their biometrics taken. So that kind of that fine, almost final step where you get your photo taken, you get things processed, you get your fingerprints, fingerprints taken, and then you get a notice in the mail.

And that notice will be kind of that confirmation, it's approved, this is your USCIS number, and your card will be mailed to you momentarily. They really just need that. Um, their lawyer can help them. Um, and then the US C. I. S. Confirm or can confirm for them that their, their status has been granted. And upon that, once they have that confirmation.

That U S CIS number. That gets given to them. Then they can file a FAFSA. Many families think that they need to wait for the physical card. And that's just not true. They don't. Technically need to wait for the car to arrive. There can sometimes be a lag between when their status gets approved. And when they actually get the card mailed to them.

I hope that answered your question. Um, and so, um, someone else asked which statuses on this list are eligible to fill out a FAFSA. Thank you for asking that. Um, there are slides that go into that. Um, so we'll get to that momentarily. I know that that's kind of like, once you know about all these statuses, then you're kind of like, okay, well, which ones?

Um, so we'll, we'll get to that. Thank you. All right. So. These are kind of the differences between cards. So some of these statuses or situations will lead to people receiving this, which is the permanent resident card. This is what many people are after because once you have this, this means you are on a pathway to citizenship.

Right. Once you have this permanent resident card, depending on how you received it, what status you can wait a certain amount of years and then begin your naturalization process. So this is definitely highly coveted, um, because this will lead to naturalization. So if you have a permanent resident card.

You can fill out a fast. And I think that gets the question that was asked in the Q and A. And that's I think, um, the simplest way to kind of think about it. At first, if you're still kind of getting confused with all the different statuses, knowing if a student has a permanent resident card, um, Is a kind of an easy first way to kind of weed out, um, that initial confusion and can kind of confirm start to confirm whether the student can fill out a FAFSA.

A lot of the statuses and processes that we talked about the last slide will, um, give the. The petitioner, this employment authorization card, you can see, I mean, the, the crops are a little different, but they're both, you know, the same size card, but you can see that the colors are different. You can see, though, they share a lot of similarities.

And oftentimes. People get confused. They might have a work authorization card, which is awesome because they can work, they can file taxes, but it's still not the permanent resident card. And so there are some students that have this card, they've been working, they've been filing taxes, they know their family has filed taxes, and they might assume then that they can fill out a FAFSA, which they can't.

You can also see one of the other biggest similarities is that they both have USCIS numbers. So this is the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agencies sort of way to catalog all of the immigrants in the United States. So everyone's that's currently, um. petitioning for immigration statuses, hasn't been nationalized as a citizen, has a USCIS number.

So you can see why some people with an employment authorization card might get confused because the FAFSA, um, historically has asked for a USCIS number. They've called it an A number. And so if you know you have this, and the FAFSA is asking you for it, why wouldn't you be Eligible for it. And so that's sometimes why students need a little bit of that pre talk before filling out a FAFSA if you know that they have a status other than a citizen status.

Um, great. Um, does that start to answer the question? We're going to get into it a little bit more in a little bit. I just want to say a few words about that. I don't want to take up too much time here. This was all the buzz. say, you know, 10, 11 years ago when it first became an executive action in 2012.

The pool of DACA recipients is thinning. It's just getting smaller and smaller with every passing year. If you ask me, this is a band aid. This is never meant to be a permanent thing, but there are still DACA recipients. Out there. Um, but what I'm seeing now that you might be feeling now is that they're not our current high school students.

Our current high school students were too. Most of them were too young to to fall into this, the DACA category easily. The last DACA student that I had come through my high school office was back in 20, 2018, 2019. I haven't seen any DACA students come through our high school counseling office since then.

I do see a lot of older siblings, a lot of older cousins, parents with DACA. DACA is fine, you know, it's It's still kicking in certain ways, but it's been in the news recently because certain circuit courts have ruled that the program might be might have been illegal. So just something to know if you do come across anyone with that guy is that initial applications are not.

Currently being processed. So if you're a first time applicant that won't be processed by USCIS, but renewal applications are still a go. So that's still being granted. The key here is just to tell students or their family members that they should begin the reapplication process. Application process. Um, at least 120 days before their cards expiration.

Um, because it does just take that long to process and they're given out into your cycles. So pretty much, you know, a year and a half into having it. You kind of have to start renewing it again. And my hope is that in the future, you know, the more that local, um, progress is being made for immigration, that that will hopefully trickle up at some point.

And we're hopefully on a path to comprehensive immigration reform because that guy is just not enough. For it, you could see, you know, you have to have entered the country before 2007, born after 1981, undocumented on June 15th, 2012. You know, some of our students right now were born, you know, in 2006 or 2007.

So you can see that it's just not good enough for the current population and the evolution of the population in the United States. Um, Temporary Protective Status is another status that we see a lot at my school. Um, it's granted to nationals of countries in crisis who are presently in the U. S. Um, TPS is usually renewed, um, every 6, 12, or 18 months for that designated country.

Uh, usually given to countries with ongoing armed conflict, natural disasters. Extraordinary temporary conditions. I want to thank MIRA, the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, for some of these talking points and stats. They do a great job of disseminating really great information in the state of Massachusetts.

The thing to know about temporary protective status and DACA is that they both receive the Work on employment authorization card so that the blue and red one, not the green card. And so that's again, like, kind of a check for FAFSA if they have that employment authorization card, they're not eligible to apply for FAFSA or to receive title for federal funds.

To make things more complicated, some of your students might not have a work authorization card yet, or might not have a green card yet. They might still be in the process of petitioning for status, or renewing a status, or applying for something for the first time. But they may have been given on their way into the country I 94, which is the arrival departure record.

They used to come, um, There used to be very commonly given out in paper form that would be stapled into a person's passport at the port of entry or the port of arrival. Um, looks a little something like this. Um, I don't see these too often anymore for students, but sometimes I see them for, for parents, older parents.

But you can see that, um, they're given a stamp and it's all very official, and they're usually given, or I usually see written on here, some sort of USCIS number, um, or other, other details. Now they're more so given out, um, electronically. So something to think about there. So if you're asking a student, a student says, I'll disclose to you, and they're saying, you know, I think, you know, we have, um, We're waiting for asylum, or we're doing this, and you might ask them, great, do you know if you have an employment authorization card or a permanent resident card?

They say no, but I think, I don't know, let me ask my family. You might say, hey, like, next time your family comes in, would they mind talking to me? I'd love to just ask them a little bit more about this. That way I know exactly how to help you. And you can get family on the phone or they come in for family conferences.

We can ask them, Hey, you know your student told me this. I thank you for trusting me with this information. It's safe with me. Do you mind if I ask you a few more questions so I could help them apply for college or for financial aid. At that point, once you say yes, of course, it's okay. And you might say, I heard from the student that the student doesn't have any sort of card.

Author employment card or a permanent resident card, might you have a 9 94, anything stapled into your passport, any other paperwork that you might have. And usually, you know, families know, um, and might be able to tell you actually, yeah, we have a 9 94. I, I can log in and print it out. Um, or actually, yeah, it's, it's in my student's passport.

Um, they can bring that in next time. So I, 90 fours are a little complicated because it, it's just that arrival departure record. It's just a record of that happening. It's not necessarily easy. You qualify for financial aid or you don't. You have to dig a little deeper and ask them about their actual status.

Is it asylum pending? Is it asylum granted? Um, so there is a little extra layer of fact finding if your student or families have I 94s and they don't have cards yet. Um, just checking the Q& A. Make sure there is a pending question there that I will get to. Um, shortly, hopefully. Um, so I just wanted to share some more information.

I know practitioners, um, especially for when I do these webinars for fellow professionals in the field, it's always useful to kind of get a sense of what's happening in our state. Um, there are a lot of immigrants, there are a lot of us in Massachusetts. 5, 600 TPS holders are essential workers. Um, this was huge, um, right around the acute phase of COVID.

So many of our essential workers were TPS holders, were here, um, because of this status. Um, the huge case for immigration reform for tuition equity is the case of Listen, immigrants pay taxes, especially undocumented immigrants are still contributing to the economy in these important ways. So all really, um, kind of interesting information to, to get a sense of what's happening in our state.

Um, I want to highlight that all of the immigrants, you know, the 1. 1 million immigrants, you know, some of them might have permanent resident cards and that might have the slew of statuses we talked about. Only about 12, 000 people are eligible for DACA in Massachusetts. So I want to like kind of If I may, like, push us away from the DACA, uh, discourse and more into, um, the discourse that talks about the other statuses, that talks about tuition equity, that talks about local, uh, immigration reform.

I think sometimes when we hyper focus on that, we lose so much of the, the texture, the other texture that's that's in here. If you want want more information I linked here, an interesting website that will give you just all more facts more figures if you're that kind of. Thinker. Um, what's cool about, um, what's happening now in Massachusetts as a result of that tireless advocacy on the ground by many, many people for many, many years is that now Massachusetts is among the states that provide a documented students in state tuition at public camps.

This is huge. And if you weren't aware of this, join me in my joy. This is huge. It's life changing before. So if I had done this webinar for you six months ago, the reality six months ago would have been that only students with the employment authorization card would could receive in state tuition at public colleges.

But now it's open to any student, regardless of that immigration status. As long as they have completed at least three years of high school in Massachusetts and graduate from a Massachusetts high school or complete the Massachusetts high school diploma equivalency test. If you want more information, I've linked the Massachusetts higher education website there.

Basically, students will need to fill out an application and an affidavit form. to prove to the campuses that they are enrolled in a Massachusetts high school, that they have been enrolled in a Massachusetts high school, and an affidavit to say I can't provide you with a social security card, a work permit, um, and this is me stating that.

The application affidavit form we're hearing from the state is going to be the same for all campuses, which is a very welcome update in my mind, so it'll kind of be standardized for all public campuses. And you just have to as a counselor kind of coach students to do this additional thing in the form of the affidavit form if they're undocumented.

This is huge. This is so big. I was sharing with. MIFA folks earlier before jumping on here that this is already changing lives at my school. Um, before, I could have never, well, I could have, but it would have, it would have been hard to suggest a student enroll at, I don't know, say, Fitchburg State University as a commuter student, or any other of our wonderful state campuses, because it, for so many families, was just not feasibly possible to pay out of state tuition.

It still doesn't. Um, mean federal student aid. It still doesn't mean fully, you know, all of the state aid that could be coming through from Massachusetts. That's still to be TBD, but it's still a huge step in the right direction, especially for the smaller state schools that have, um, smaller price tags for certain, you know, middle income undocumented families that, you know, 6, 7, 8, 9k a year could actually be very doable.

Or potentially, again, getting creative, right? Potentially even telling a student, like, would you consider starting out part time and maybe only paying for, uh, half the credits still at the in state tuition rate, um, could still be a great way for students to start those, those families that might not be able to afford, um, the full time tuition.

But it's still amazing news. Um, Let's all share information. If you're hearing anything new, um, definitely pass it along here, but I'm definitely checking back constantly to make sure that I have, um, the most up to date information to share with my students. Um, this is important to know about now so you can start prepping undocumented students that want to go to college with this information and this can help you craft their college list.

Um, But they don't need to fill out the forms until they plan to commit to the colleges. So the, the reason we don't have the application yet or the affidavit form is that it's just not timely yet. So once students are applying, start getting accepted, start committing to these places, that's when you would fill out the application affidavit form.

And so it's, it's just love. It's just great news. Um, just so, so, so excited. And so this is an old map, um, that I used to show these presentations. You can see that Massachusetts was grayed out. We just didn't have any state laws. Concerning, um, undocumented students. All we had before it was just in state tuition for DACA and TPS students, or any author, um, employment authorization card holders.

And so now, um, I can see the National Immigration Law Center updating this map and turning Massachusetts a shade of green, which is very exciting. And I feel like we're finally, slowly catching up to what other... Dark green states have been, um, doing for a very long time. So our voices matter. Advocacy matters.

Woohoo. Yay. Wonderful. Um, oh, and so I just wanted to click into, I don't know, I clicked into, um, the link here, um, and you can see the Education Trust is a great resource if you want to have more of a comprehensive tool to show you what different states offer, um, They're undocumented students. Um, say you have a student that wants to study in Rhode Island, has family there, might want to establish residency in another state.

It's always good to have access to these, to these tools. Sorry, keeps clicking. Okay. Um, so questions that you might want to ask yourself, um, and take the lead on asking and fact checking in your community might be something like, what countries are represented in our school? Are there countries that, um, Are some of those countries than TPS countries.

Do we do we have a large population of undocumented students, and therefore, which colleges around us. might be more undocu friendly. Which colleges give more merit to students who may not be undocumented but not eligible for Title IV or FAFSA funds? Um, my advice is to centralize your undocumented student support.

Someone that can coordinate and triage self disclosures in your counseling office so that as you're getting Knowledge from students that they're undocumented. You can kind of huddle your team together, try to brainstorm best practices, share information in case a counselor was not able to attend this webinar, you can all kind of centralize and support and help the undocumented students in your, um, in your counseling office.

Um, this is, these are just some helpful hopefully helpful links for all of you to stay informed and just some next steps for us in Massachusetts we're lucky enough to have Mira the Massachusetts immigrant refugee advocacy coalition, they have a great tool on their website that allows you to search for trusted legal aid in your area and they cover all of the different areas of Massachusetts.

So if you're working with a family that might be undocumented or might have questions about finding legal aid, you know, we're not immigration lawyers, we're not immigration agencies at our school, but you can always point them to Organizations like Mira that could potentially help them, um, get a legal screening going.

Um, if they have questions about what they might be eligible to apply for, um, just I always keep that back of mind is, you know, my, my main job, of course, is counselor helping them plan for post secondary life. But I can also suggest that they take these proactive steps, um, toward potentially discovering more information.

Um, ways that they can, um, help their, or evolve their immigration status or their situation. I always, uh, bookmark legal resources like the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the National Immigration Law Center, the Resource Center. Um, they also have access to the red Know Your Rights cards, um, that you could print out and have available if you happen to have a larger undocumented population.

And then these are number three just highlights a few immigrant led organizations and advocacy groups. It's always, I think, great when students self disclose to point them to the source to say, this is what other undocumented. People are doing, activists are doing, this is what allies are doing, and make them feel like they're not isolated, um, in their story.

And I think organizations like United We Dream do a great job of that. So these are just resources for you, feel free to peruse at your leisure. Um, I just want to go into self disclosure a little bit because I've been saying that a lot, um, but I know that sometimes for, for practitioners it can be a little bit confusing, um, and so, I always say, please, if you suspect that a student might be undocumented or have immigration statuses, prioritize bringing them in, prioritize building a relationship with them.

And if you can, if your job allows, your time allows, prioritize having a family meeting with them, um, and they're, they're Thank you. Close ones. Um, they're, they're families. Um, because ultimately it's all about trust and we know self disclosure needs to happen. They need to feel safe. They need to feel ready.

Um, and we can never ask a student or family what their immigration status is. I want to be like so clear about that. We can never ask. It's illegal for us to do that, especially as school employees, K through 12 school employees. But once they tell us, Okay. Great, we can take it from there. Um, if you are in a family meeting if you suspect if you have a good if you're building a good relationship with a student, and they're like hinting at something or maybe not or maybe you just want to like, put it out there that you are someone they can come to a question I always rely on is, like, is there anything else you might want to share with me that might allow me to help you in your, in your process more like anything that's affecting.

Um, that you think might affect your process. Um, I'm all ears. Like, what you tell me is safe with me. Like, I'll, you know, it's confidential. Uh, usually, if there's something there, um, some, a question like that might help trigger, um, a response from students. I always tell, um, practitioners to avoid writing emails with sensitive information, especially before a student or family has given permission to spread the information to others.

Um, at my school, sometimes this manifests as a student has told me their status, and maybe they want to speak to a counselor or another practitioner, and I want to refer them over. I always want to make sure the student is giving me permission to do that. And I always face to face these requests. I never email them, um, especially not with a student name or status in the email.

And I also don't keep a written list anywhere of student statuses. Um, that's just I think common sense, but sometimes when we're in the thick of a busy year, and we want to remember students and their self disclosures, um, we might be tempted to write a list. You know, student first name, last name, status.

Don't do it. Um, for their safety and for everyone's peace of mind. Um, and so the next few slides, I'm not going to go into too much detail, but it just offers suggestions for how to curate your atmosphere in an authentic way. So as to be supportive of immigration to send visual cues to students that may walk into your office that you are a safe haven for them.

So think about all the spaces that you touch your website, email communications. Don't be afraid to be bold, be unafraid, be an ally if you can, if you feel comfortable. Um, this is really important because the more that we show our students that we're that safe space, the more that they will want to talk to us, um, and therefore self disclose to us in a safe way.

Um, these are just some, uh, beautiful images that I have printed out. I have, I've... Put around my office in schools does a great job of providing, um, toolkits for educators. I cannot rave about them enough that this this is the black and white poster in the middle. Um, and so even just something like that, you know, next to your desk or in the waiting area can go a long way.

Especially if you're in a town that might not have a huge undocumented population, like at my school, for example, where a highly immigrant population were really diverse and, and it's kind of spoken about more, but I can imagine some smaller towns. That you might only have a handful of students, in which case these initiatives tend to be really crucial for them to be able to seek out the help they need.

So always assess the situation. If you know a student's status. Or ask yourself, do I know the student status? If no, then, but you suspect something, give students chances to tell you with that question, kind of that prompt that I shared with you. Is there anything else you might want to share with me? Give them the chance, don't press them too much, but you know, have it come up, kind of come out organically.

If you do already know their status, How did you find out about their status? Did they share it with you? Cool. If they did, great. Make sure you get permission from them before you share their status with others. If you, say, need thought partnerships from someone else in your school or something like that.

Did you hear about it from others? Now, this is a tricky one because it touches on that trust piece. Um, if a student. Say a student shared with their ninth grade counselor, they're undocumented, and that counselor has told you. I would hope that that counselor has asked the student, Hey, can I share it with your eleventh grade counselor so you don't have to repeat your story, and they just know.

And if the student says yes, then the counselor tells you, and you can just be open with the student, Hey, your counselor told me, thank you for trusting me with that, and then we move on. But if the counselor never asked that student permission, and the counselor told you their status, You might want to double check.

Hey, is it okay that you told me this? Can you just double check with the student? Uh, nine times out of ten, the student says, yes, of course. But again, we want to protect their, their, their information and their dignity and all of that. So feel free to read these slides, reach out if you need any help or thought partnership with anything.

But I think sometimes presentations like this can focus so much on the tactical that sometimes we forget this sort of. The emotional piece that that is so deeply embedded in the tactical. So I always want to make space for for these slides in my presentations. Um, here I offer some advice for how to talk to students when you know the student doesn't qualify for financial aid.

That can be some of the toughest conversations I have. I always just make sure the student knows doesn't mean they don't qualify for it. any other aid. And I make that super clear to the student. Um, I take the student through my thought process. I think through scenarios that the student, um, if the student's completely undocumented, you know, you can explain their options, tuition, equity, really give them hope for the future.

And self disclosure in the end is so important also because then you'll know. If they are eligible for federal aid, the list of who is eligible is smaller than who is ineligible and I know someone in the Q and I asked this question and I kind of answered it by by saying, you know, look at the cards. Is it a permanent resident card?

Is it a work authorization? But more so. There's actual statuses that federal student aid, um, the federal Department of Education is very clear about that do qualify. And of course the card hack is kind of just that kind of a hack to kind of. Give you an opportunity to enter into that and have a little bit more clarity, but ultimately always consult those federal student aid documents that actually enumerate all of the statuses that are eligible.

It's important to know that many students might actually not be sure of their status, which is why what's a self just. Um, the Federal Student Aid Handbook, um, has a lot of information on it. So if you want to read it, you can go to the Federal Student Aid Handbook. Um, you can read it. Um, So let's go ahead and open that up.

Let's open the, uh, training, training handbook. You'll notice that, um, You know, it's for federal, uh, sorry, for financial aid administrators at colleges, but their volume one chapter two actually does a phenomenal job of kind of highlighting all of the different sentences that are eligible. Um, it's a very clear cut list.

The handbook just goes into more detail. So if you're a person that likes detail, examples, pictures, graphics, that's for you. If you just want the high level, stick, stick to these slides. So there's basically three categories for who's eligible, U. S. citizens or nationals, permanent residents with any of these three, um, USCIS designations or the eligible non citizens category, which is a larger category.

This is where a lot of our students, uh, kind of fall into the eligible non citizen category. So it's basically what you see here, um, persons granted asylum, refugees, um, the list goes on. It's very, very meticulous in, in the information. The only visa that is eligible for federal aid is the T visa, um, which happens to be for victims of human trafficking.

Um, and you can see here I've kind of put in the little hack. These are all permanent resident card holders, so you can verify. The status and then also verify that they have the permanent resident card. If those two things check out, then you're good to go to file a FAFSA. Um, so what does this mean for the FAFSA and the CSS profile?

Um, bottom line, even with the FAFSA changes and the FAFSA Simplification Act. Only students with a social security number may apply. So if the student is the applicant for college, then they are then considered the applicant for FAFSA, but they may not file a FAFSA if they're undocumented, because they wouldn't have a social security number and they just wouldn't even be able to, um, to go in and do all the things.

If the student, if you've already. Decided, yes, the student can fill out a FAFSA. They're eligible. Cool. They can go ahead and do it. Where it gets tricky for this population would be for mixed status family. So the student's eligible, they might have a perma resin card, they might be a citizen, they might be one of the eligible non citizen statuses here.

So that's all great. That checks out. But what if their parents are documented in the old FAFSA? The parent would insert all zeros in lieu of the SSN, and then print out the signature page. With the FAFSA simplification, um, there is some kind of good news there that, um, the undocumented parents will have a way to, um, also electronically sign the FAFSA, so it won't just be the signature page like it was before, but the Department of Ed has yet to unveil what Precisely that separate form or process for those parents is going to be, um, they have not released that information ahead of the December rollout, but I have caught wind of webinars coming up that are going to go into detail.

Uh, for this. So stay tuned for this. Um, and I'm sure we'll hear more in the next few weeks. This is very, very timely stuff. Um, so just let's keep checking back. Let's keep sharing information with one another. Um, hopefully the process is easy enough for, um, families to be able to do even families that might not speak English.

or might have trouble with technology. This is where having a counselor like you might really come in handy. You might be able to help them out with this additional process if they're undocumented parents. For the CSS profile, nothing much has changed here. All students may apply for this because again, CSS profile is for, um, Institutional aid at private colleges.

Um, this is actually a place where I suggest that a lot of undocumented students self disclose. It's a really safe way to self disclose and be really open with the colleges that, hey, I'm applying to your private institution, would really love some merit aid. I'm undocumented. I think you should know this.

And the way that I encourage my students to do that is by writing a short, brief, informative statement, maybe a few sentences in the special circumstances section of the CSS profile, which is toward the end of the application. And like I said, this is a safe way to self disclose. I always encourage my undocumented students to self disclose to institutions, especially Massachusetts.

As you saw from the map, we are becoming a more undocu friendly state. Um, there shouldn't be any worries about, um, private information being shared with ICE or with law enforcement. I know that's a question that I often get from families of like, is it safe to tell student, um, sorry, is it safe to tell colleges that I'm undocumented?

Is it safe to fill out, uh, the CSS profile? And I always revert back to yes, it's safe. Um, and there's a huge reason for that, which is. Um, FERPA, which is a federal, um, sort of act that protects student information. It's permanent. It's a federally recognized thing. Um, in my 11 years as a counselor, I've never had a college, um, disclose personal identifiable student information to any sort of immigration agency.

It just, like, Has never happened. I'm not saying it will never happen, but if it did happen, it would be an egregious breach of that FERPA law, and it's just like colleges don't want to take that risk. It just, it's so safe. So, as much as you want to quote me on that when you talk to your families, please, please definitely make it clear to them that it is safe for them to self disclose to colleges.

I'm going to just quickly check the Q& A. Looks like we still have that open question, which I'll come back to. Thank you all so much. If there's anything, please, we're wrapping up in the next 5 ish minutes. But if there are any other questions, now's the chance to kind of put them in the Q and a, and then to kind of to wrap up the number 3 sort of best practice that I shared at the beginning.

Um, is really around myth busting whenever possible. Don't stay silent, but also don't give students wrong information, even if it's coming from a really good place of like, I think that's right. I'm just going to say it. Um, it's best with this population to always check. And so I always like to end these presentations with just more tactical information of of things you can say, put in your literature, put in your guidebooks.

Your college advising classes, whatever you do at your high school organization to myth bust and to make sure that students have the accurate information, um, to empower them in this process. And it starts with letting them know there's no federal law that prohibits you from applying so you're undocumented like, please like you should apply there.

It's not illegal for you to do so. Um, Target institutions as you're making a student's college list that offer immigrant, immigrant friendly spaces and support. So they have like a DACA or a document student office or space, or if they have a website. That's a great sign. Policies at campuses are constantly changing.

So when in doubt, ask. Call the financial aid office. Hey, do you provide merit aid for your undocumented students? What are your policies here? Are you treating undocumented students as domestic for admissions and domestic for financial aid or domestic for admissions and international for financial aid?

I tend to always do a little bit of that fact finding first as I'm preparing a college list for a student. But always, again, of course, want to empower the student to also do some of this fact finding. But if I, myself, am unsure first, I will always kind of prime the situation by doing a little fact finding myself first.

In my experience, college admissions offices and financial aid offices kind of Evolve in like two or three year cycles where you might have certain admissions counselors working. They're really familiar with undocumented students stuff, but then they might move on or they might, um, move up in their role and new counselors come in.

So every two or three years, even if you think you know what a school's policy is, it doesn't hurt to double check because things are always evolving and in Massachusetts or New England in general, I would say they're evolving for the better more and more student. Sorry, more and more colleges are becoming undoggy friendly.

More and more colleges are setting aside funds, um, for this population. Not all of them, so always fact find. And, you know, as a local counselor, I can tell you two or three schools on a mental short list that I know actively. Don't give a document students financial aid so that they still exist. I'm not going to name drop them here.

But if you're curious and or you're running into this, please let's let's all share information and be in community with one another offline about all this. And always self disclose. Connect with someone in the admissions office. Um, it's just better to put it all out there first, um, and for us to feel like you're there supporting them while they're doing this.

It can be a little bit scary for a student to call up a financial aid office or call up an admissions office. So definitely handle these situations with your undocumented students with a little bit more tenderness and a little bit, um, more care. Thank you for sharing technical info. Can you share some positive stories of students for those who may be newbies?

Yeah, of course. Thank you so much for sharing that. I think bottom line, if you are building a trusting relationship, With your undocumented students, their process is going to be a successful one. Their process might not be exactly what they imagined for themselves initially, but once you sort of go through the different options for them, really lay it out.

Be in that journey fact find together be really clear about what their options are, what their o