Accountability without Accounting: Missing and Inconsistent Labeling of Refugee and Asylee Students in State Datasets

The United States’ refugee resettlement program is one of the oldest and largest government-sponsored resettlement programs globally, and children below the age of 18 comprise a large proportion of those resettled. Despite that, data on long-term integration of refugee children has been missing, which has led to a lack of longitudinal research on this population. In this paper, we use the labeling framework to explore the labeling of students with refugee/asylee statuses in Texas educational data. This initial exploration of data demonstrates the lack of thorough labeling policies and gaps in the implementation of existing policies. Our findings suggest that inconsistencies have emerged in who is identified, when, under which dataset, and how many times because labeling is tied to accountability. Findings also suggest an erasure of refugee/asylee students’ identities. The implications of our findings, including the need for policy reforms at the state and federal levels, are discussed in detail.