Children of some international students, previously barred from accessing public school, to gain access

Children previously barred from attending public schools in New Brunswick will now be permitted to access education, the NB Media Co-op has learned.

Previously, international students pursuing one or two-year courses in private colleges had no access to public education for their children, particularly in the Anglophone East School District, according to non-profit groups supporting immigrants.

The children of such international students were being denied public education despite their parents holding federally-issued work permits and paying taxes, Hola NB and Moncton Cares said in letters to the Department of Education.

In such a scenario, international students had to pay tuition fees of approximately $16,500 annually for a child to attend public school.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for the AESD maintained that the school district was following official guidelines, saying in an email that “we continue to adhere to established provincial guidelines.”

But the ex-Minister of Education said he directed his staff to allow them access to school, before he quit his position in the cabinet of Premier Blaine Higgs.

Responding to a tweet from the NB Media Co-op, Dominic Cardy said: “the direction before I left was clear: students in New Brunswick should be in school. Full stop.”

Cardy announced his resignation in a tweet Thursday morning. He outlined the reasons for his departure in an open letter that slammed Higgs, comparing him to a dictator.

On Friday, Ana Santana, operations director of Hola NB, said that the Department of Education had phoned her, informing her of the changes. In particular, AESD has invited parents to register their children on Monday for free school privileges.

On Friday afternoon, a spokesperson from the Department of Education provided a statement by email.

“We have been working directly with Hola Atlantic and school districts on providing free school privileges to school-aged children under the regulations of the Education Act,” Benoît A. Lanteigne said.

“This includes looking at provisions which allow free school privileges to be extended to: international students; a child of a person who is lawfully admitted into Canada with a work or study permit (study permits must be for an educational institution outlined under the School Administration Regulation); a child who is claiming refugee status, or is a child of a person claiming refugee status.”

It wasn’t immediately clear how many children would be affected by the changes. Hola NB and Moncton Cares previously stated they were aware of 53 children not allowed to attend school because of the restrictions.

This story was updated at approximately 5 p.m. on Friday, October 14, 2022, to include information from the Department of Education. 

Arun Budhathoki is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. David Gordon Koch is a journalist and manager of the NB Media Co-op.