44 Years after Plyler v. Doe, The Right to a Free Public Education Demands Liberatory Mental Health in Schools

June 15, 2026 marks the 44th anniversary of Plyler v. Doe, the Supreme Court decision that confirmed that the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution protects the right of all children to access free and public education in their state—regardless of immigration status.

Today, young people are not only still fighting to access that free public education, but to also make sure that they have support, not just academically, but for their mental health and wellbeing – to thrive in school.

Children need to be healthy to fully participate in a free public education

The fight to fulfill the promise of Plyler continues today. Young people are not only fighting for the education they are entitled to but are doing it under the oppression of militarized immigration enforcement, the spread of authoritarianism, and the general anxieties of adolescence. It is cruel to expect students to show up ready to learn when they are not given the mental health and emotional support they need to deal with these constant threats.

In response to the aftermath of violent ICE raids in Chicago last year, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC), Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA), Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ), Palenque LSNA, and Hana Center launched Youth Healing Chi (YHC), a youth-led campaign demanding that Chicago Public Schools provide students mental health care grounded in true healing and support as they deal with all of these anxieties while still attending their public schools. . . .

We are proud to uplift Youth Healing Chi: A Call to Action for Mental Health Liberation in Chicago Schools, a report produced in collaboration between the Youth Healing Chi campaign and Temple Law professor Noelia Rivera-Calderón. It outlines concrete steps that policymakers — and all of us — can take to advance mental health liberation in Chicago schools and beyond.

Current mental health care support in schools often takes a harmful carceral approach

In too many communities across the country, mental health care support in schools often use harmful, carceral approaches that demonize students and their families. Too often, students who express mental distress or experience crisis are met with forced hospitalization, incarceration, and the belief that their problems are their own individual, personal problems and are only resolved through individual solutions. These responses are far from the compassion that any person needs and deserves—let alone a kid navigating a mental health issue.

Young people cannot learn in schools if they have unmet basic needs like access to housing and food as well as a lack of physical safety. To meaningfully have access to the free public education they are entitled to under Plyler, we must address all the barriers to school young people face, including lack of affirming mental health support.

Over the past year and a half we have seen students stay home from school due to fears about ICE, and research has shown that young people’s mental health is negatively impacted by immigration enforcement.

Students should have the right to attend public schools where they are fully cared for

We believe that all students, regardless of immigration status, deserve public schools that meet all their needs: places where they feel safe, protected, and can thrive. Despite many well-meaning policies, mental health care in schools for too long has been about controlling, containing, surveilling, and punishing young people in need of real support.

Instead of forced hospitalizations and police involvement in moments of crisis, we believe in listening to and following the lead of young people and communities to define for themselves what their visions of healing and wellness are and should be.

Young Chicagoans are building the vision for the schools they deserve

In September 2025, the Trump-Vance administration deployed border patrol, immigration officers, and National Guard troops to Chicago and surrounding suburbs—shooting and killing residents, chasing teachers into daycare centers in the presence of infants and toddlers, and deploying tear gas in neighborhoods and around schools. While the National Guard left at the end of 2025, youth organizers continue to fight back against remaining federal immigration enforcement to protect their communities.

In December 2025, youth organizers launched Youth Healing Chi, a campaign to push Chicago Public Schools to adopt mental health policies and programming that help young people heal from the trauma of ICE and other forms of policing with policies that are rooted in healing instead of policing and surveillance.  The campaign is grounded by three principles:

1. Community care: to address young people’s mental health needs, all of their basic needs must be met;
2. Choice: young people should have the right to determine for themselves what is best for their mind and body; and
3. Confidentiality: school and healthcare systems/institutions should keep their information private and protected.

At Advancement Project, we echo and support Youth Healing Chi’s calls on Chicago Public Schools to invest $15 million in holistic healing programming, end involuntary hospitalizations, and remove policing and surveillance from mental health and crisis response. We have worked with YHC member BPNC since they launched #CopsOutCPS—a campaign that led to the removal of School Resource Officers from CPS and an end to the district’s contract with the Chicago Police Department. We are proud to spotlight partners like BPNC as they continue to fight for a vision of safe, liberatory, and police-free schools.

Join the fight for mental health liberation in schools

Although Youth Healing Chi is based in Chicago, we hope others fighting for schools that are safe and affirming for Black, Latine and immigrant youth take inspiration from the campaign to build your own version of YHC in your city and school district. And if you are in Chicago, read the report to learn more about what mental health in CPS looks like, support the Youth Healing Chi campaign, and follow them on Instagram to stay updated on their work.

As the Trump-Vance administration continues to target our Black, Latine and immigrant communities, including attempts to remove entire peoples from our education systems and society generally, it is our duty to listen to young people who are leading us to what that new vision of healing, safety, and community can look like. They are defining what Plyler and the right to free public education should be for all.