Immigrant Education Rights Project

The purpose of the Immigrant Education Rights Project was  to advocate for immigrant students in English Language Learners (ELL) enrolled in Minneapolis School District’s public schools and alternative schools such as Abraham Lincoln High School (ALHS). The primary objective of this lawsuit is to enforce the requirements of 20 U.S.C §1703 that Minneapolis Public Schools take appropriate actions to overcome language barriers with its immigrant high school students.The remedy for this case will require implementing an appropriate ELL program.  This will require at minimum, Minneapolis School District and ALHS to take the following specific steps:

1.      End its policy of concentrating ELL students at ALHS and other schools;
2.      Provide appropriate training for ELL students teachers;
3.      Provide testing of ELL students upon arrival in the Minneapolis Public Schools to determine language skills and to determine whether students suffer from disabilities;
4.      Provide an ELL program that allows students to transition from ELL instructions to mainstream English instruction;
5.      Submit to annual audits of its ELL programs to ensure compliance with federal law; and
6.      Establish an educution plan for students who attended ALHS prior to the implementation of these changes.

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CrossingBarriers began organizing students  in 2004 and the lawsuit was filed in 2005 at the federal level and still pending. A brief was filed to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, with action for national origin discrimination in education. The appellants have brought claims for violations of the Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1974 (“EEOA”), 20 U.S.C. § 1703(f), Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §2000d, and the Minnesota Human Rights Act (“MHRA”), Minn. Stat. § 363A.13. The appellants brought these claims because ALHS and the District failed to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers by denying special education testing and services, appropriate English language learner instruction, and almost every other accoutrement of an adequate education, all on account of appellants’ status of being foreign-born.

This case has been significant in several ways:
1.    This is the first time ELL students have sued the Minneapolis School District and that a small group of students have organized to speak out for the rest of the population
2.    Parents and students have realized that they can speak out because their voice matters in a system that was marginalizing them.
3.    This case has brought visibility to the systemic procedures that were failing immigrant students in public schools.
4.     Many similar schools in the city have begun to pay attention and are re-evaluating their ELL programs.
5.    This case caused the school district to begin to assess their procedures.

See attached documents of the complaint and the brief. 

• Activity Information
• Activity Links and Media

Activity Links and Media

Links to Relevant Websites

• Blacked Out; City Pages, 2005 Minneapolis

Links to Relevant Documents

The lawsuit filed

Brief filed to 8th Circuit Court of Appeals

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