ELKHART, Ind. -- The state and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana have settled a lawsuit over a scholarship program that denied eligibility to the native-born students of parents who were in the country illegally.\nUnder a settlement filed recently in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, the state no longer will require parents to be U.S. citizens or legal aliens for their children to receive aid under the 21st Century Scholars program, The Truth newspaper reported Sunday.\n"There was a real problem. You can't have someone who's a U.S. resident be denied benefits because of the status of their parents," said Ken Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana. "The purpose of 21st Century scholarship program is to encourage bright and upwardly mobile students to go to school in Indiana and stay in Indiana. To deny them seems to be outrageous."\nThe scholarship program helps students who are U.S. citizens and have graduated from an Indiana high school pay for four years of tuition in a public college or university. It's intended to help low- to moderate-income families, reduce the number of high-school dropouts and increase the number of students going to college. The amount of the scholarship varies.\nThe ACLU of Indiana brought the case last March on behalf of a former Elkhart County high-school student identified only as E.C. in court documents. The girl, who was born in the U.S., applied to the 21st Century Scholars Program while in seventh grade using her own Social Security number. Problems arose once she graduated and was asked for her parents' Social Security numbers to receive her scholarship.\nThe settlement will apply to past, present and future students who were found ineligible or did not apply because their parents were not U.S. citizens or legal aliens, the Truth report said. Affected students must be notified before the court can approve the settlement.\nState officials said no students were denied eligibility because their parents were not citizens or lawful aliens, but they acknowledged that 73 applications were returned because students did not list Social Security numbers for their parents or guardians. Those applicants will be notified and receive new applications, the settlement stipulates.\nThe state will also publish legal notices in major Indiana newspapers.\nThe ACLU and the state are asking affected students to apply again no later than March 10 of this year.
The state will not need to reimburse students for tuition they've already paid.\nStudents who file for the scholarship need not worry about immigration authorities learning that their parents are not in the country legally, said Cynthia Wardlow, Hispanic enhancement recruiter and adviser with Indiana University-South Bend. Schools and post-secondary institutions are not immigration reporting agencies, Wardlow said.\n"That information is not shared and is not supposed to be shared. We're obligated to educate the student regardless of their status and the status of their parents," Wardlow said.\nThe ACLU estimated in the lawsuit that Indiana has between 75,000 to 100,000 noncitizens without lawful residency status. Children born to those people while they are in the United States are legal citizens.
