The Highline School Board on Sept. 19 threw its support behind proposed congressional action to grant legal residency to undocumented children educated in the United States.

According to the board's resolution, "...under the American DREAM Act, most students, of good moral character, who came to the U.S. before they were sixteen years old, and at least five years before the date of the bill's enactment, would be granted a temporary legal residency, and could earn permanent resident status and work toward citizenship..."

The resolution also mentioned that the Legislature in 2003 passed a law allowing undocumented students who had lived in the state for at least three years to pay resident tuition at the state's college and universities.

Board members unanimously passed the resolution after five Hispanic students spoke supporting the measure.

Board member Tom Slattery, who proposed the resolution at their previous meeting, was excused from the Sept. 19 meeting.

Roxana Garcia, Highline High School student body president, said 25 percent of the district's students are Latino.

Passage of the act would mean, "living would be improved and dreams realized" for some of those students, Garcia added.

Jose Lopez from SeaTac said he came to the U.S. when he was 12.

"So many dreams out there are being stopped," he declared.

Lopez asked what is the point of spending so much money educating students in elementary, middle and high school if access to college is blocked.

Erika Tadeo from Burien noted she has earned a 3.9 grade point average after coming to this country and learning English.

"The more educated people there are, the more the country develops," she added.

Students Angela Aguilar from SeaTac and Ricardo Pereccica of Burien also voiced support for the resolution.

Deputy Superintendent Carla Jackson noted the district's vision is that students graduate ready for college, career and citizenship.

She then read a statement in Spanish thanking the students for their comments.

Before the vote, board vice president Julie Burr Spani pointed out the sample resolution the board discussed at its Sept. 12 meeting included provisions that undocumented students would need to earn 90 college credits or a community college degree before qualifying for temporary legal status.

"Our version has no mention of that," Spani said.