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Committee adopts amendment to bill affirming students' right to education; HF3409 laid over
Summary
Representative Sensormura's House File 3409, which clarifies students' right to public education regardless of perceived immigration status, had its A1 amendment adopted; the bill was laid over due to time constraints after multiple student and community testimonies about attendance and trauma.
Lawmakers in the House Education Policy Committee considered House File 3409, a bill Sensormura described as affirming that all students in Minnesota are entitled to a free public education regardless of real or perceived immigration status. Representative Sensormura moved the A1 amendment, which removed a proposed civil-remedies section and clarified that school resource officers are not included in the bill's restrictions; members adopted A1 by voice vote.
Sensormura said the amendment narrows the bill to focus on ensuring access to education while continuing conversations about accountability. A sequence of students and community leaders then testified about disrupted school activities, canceled field trips, parents sheltering at home, bus-stop staging by agents, and the emotional toll on children.
Student testimony included Arielle Bissocken, who said her class shrank from 25 to 15 students and that field trips were canceled because the school "realized it wasn't safe to go on the field trip." Community advocates and educators reiterated that districts should not disclose immigration status and emphasized trust as essential to public education.
With time running out, the committee laid HF3409 over for a later date; no final statutory language beyond the adopted A1 amendment was enacted at this meeting.
