Basic Facts About In-State Tuition for Undocumented Immigrant Students

At least twenty states and the District of Columbia have “tuition equity” laws or policies that permit certain students who have attended and graduated from secondary schools in their state to pay the same tuition as their “in-state” classmates at their state’s public institutions of higher education, regardless of their immigration status. Over 75 percent of the nation’s foreign-born population live in states with tuition equity laws or policies, and other states are considering similar measures. In many of the states that have adopted these policies, support has been strongly bipartisan. This report examines the requirements of these tuition equity laws or policies.