Long Commute

The school system in Del Rio, Texas, is closing its doors to students who don't reside within the district; officials suspect that includes between 5 and 10 percent of students. Schools that are considered more desirable than their neighbors often get overcrowded, so why is this case unusual? The neighbors reside south of the U.S. border with Mexico.

Earlier this school year, administrators at San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District noticed hundreds of school-age children walking or riding across a border bridge to attend classes in the United States.

"It looks like a taxicab service from across the border," says Kelt Cooper, superintendent of the school district. "A van pulls up to the school and multiple children jump out."

Residency issues are often fraught in towns along the Mexican border, where U.S. schools offer better facilities than those to the south. "Some of the Mexican schools on the border have admirable instructors, but their facilities are dilapidated," says Cooper. Parents want their children to have an education in which the amenities are modern and healthy and include air conditioning, heating, and drinkable water, he adds.

The district is home to more than 10,000 students from preschool to 12th grade and is within walking distance of Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. In border communities, the distinction between the U.S. and Mexico can get blurry—often children will pay visits on the weekend to family members who reside in Mexico and cross the border again Monday morning to go to class. But students weren't crossing just on occasion; it was happening every day.

Cooper presents the issue as a matter of public health and safety. "What if there is an outbreak of the swine flu or an injury at school? How will we find someone's parents when they live in a different country?" he asks.

In September, school employees waited on the international bridge at 6:30 one morning and issued each student walking to school a letter, asking them to confirm residency within the district. "There was evidence implying these students were not living where they said, so we asked them to meet with our office staff to rectify the issue," Cooper says. If students couldn't verify residency, they were asked to leave the district. A handful of students didn't return to school the next day.

In total, Cooper says, about 195 notices were issued. Civil-rights groups who are critical of the school's actions claim that anywhere from 200 to 500 letters were distributed.