"When I was younger, I dreamed of a lot of things, but when I had Erica, she became the only reason I wanted to stay in the United States. I want her to get good education and get in a good college," said Zhang, who wanted to be identified only by her first initial and last name.

Once a middle school drop-out who was forced out by her family's financial woes, Zhang cannot help but imagine what Erica's classroom looks like every morning when she sends Erica to her school, P.S. 1 in Chinatown. She always stops at the gate of the school building to kiss her daughter goodbye.

Never, not even once, has she entered the building because she is undocumented and is not able to present the official ID that the school's security guards would require: "I really want to attend the school activities just like other parents do. I want Erica to feel I care about her education. But sometimes I feel like a fugitive who won't be welcomed into the school," said Zhang, who only has a Chinese passport as I.D. with no valid American visa on it. "I definitely don't want to show it to any uniformed people," said Zhang.

Zhang's pain is shared by many other undocumented immigrant parents, a recently released report indicated. The report, conducted by the advocacy organization Advocates for Children of New York, focuses on the barriers that affect immigrant parents' involvement in their children's education. The ID issue is at the top of the list, along with language barriers, lack of encouragement and responsiveness, and inaccessibility of parent associations and school leadership teams.

"Participants reported that when immigrant parents attempt to visit their children's schools, they face barriers that begin at the front door…The presence of security guards at the front door requesting identification creates a physical barrier to parent access, particularly for immigrant parents who may not have official ID," said the report, based on the interviews and surveys of dozens of immigrant parents and representatives from 10 community-based organizations.

"Parents' involvement in school is very important to the success of students, especially for the English Language Learners whose dropout rate is high," said Arlen Benjamin-Gomez, one of the authors of the report. "But parents need I.D. to get into the school to meet the principal, to attend school activities, or to pick up their kids. And many communities have a large undocumented population and sometimes even citizens may not have an official ID, especially in low-income communities."

There are 500,000 undocumented immigrants in the city. Nobody seems to know the exact number of parents, who don't have any type of ID. The ID issue has been bothering immigrant parents for a long time, as principals and DOE officials keep hearing such anecdotes. The issue has long been overlooked until the report brought it into the limelight.

Under the Bloomberg administration, the DOE has made some progress in enhancing parents' involvement in the recent years. It provides more translated documents to immigrant parents than it ever did before. Three years ago, it started to survey the parents annually, seeking their opinions about their children's schools. And in April, the DOE launched an online voting system, enabling parents for the first time to participate in the election of the Community Education Council members.

But the Mayor, who single handedly controls education, seems to have his hands tied on the ID issue – he cannot help undocumented parents to get an official ID, and neither can he loosen the security check at the school gate, which is necessary for the safety of students.

Nevertheless, advocates have come up with an innovative idea. The report calls upon the DOE to create a parent identification card that is recognized within the school system.

Benjamin-Gomez said this method has been tried successfully at a smaller scale – a middle school in St. Louis issued the so-called "VIP Card" to parents, which they can use as an ID at the school gate. A community organization in Brooklyn that serves Hispanic immigrants also created a similar membership photo ID for parents, which is often accepted at the school gate. Benjamin-Gomez said now it is a priority for her organization to push the DOE to weigh in.

The idea is highly commended by immigrant communities, including the Chinese. "A lot of people thought new immigrant parents are reluctant to get involved in their kids' education. That's not true. A lot of time they are held back by the technical barriers such as the ID issue," said Kenny Chan, executive vice president of Fukien American Association, an organization that serves the Fujianese, a subgroup of the Chinese community with a high number of undocumented. "If the DOE can help on this, I'm sure you'll see more Chinese parents attending the PTA meetings and school activities."

The schools like the idea too. At Erica's school, P.S. 1, 70 percent of the students are Asian and about half of them are from Fujianese families. The school encounters parents who don't have an ID every now and then, said Amy Hom, the Principal of PS 1.

If the parents could prove their identity (say by naming the teachers of the child), Hom said, she will make an exception and let them in. But many times, parents are just too frightened when they were stopped by the security guards and they'd simply leave without asking for help from the principal.

"If you don't allow parents to get into the building, you are sending a message that you don't care," said Hom. "To issue school IDs to the parents is a good idea, but I cannot afford it. My budget is tight. But if you can have the DOE to do it, I'll be very excited," said Amy Hom.

So far, the DOE response has been positive. "It's incredibly important to get parents involved in education. We've been working to make it easier. (Issuing parents' ID) is something we are strongly considering," said William Havemann, a spokesman for the DOE. Havemann said the DOE has learned about the ID issue on an anecdotal basis and has taken notes of the recommendation of the report. But the agency has to think about the costs as well, and there is no timetable for it to move forward.

For Nancy Liu, mother of an 8-year-old boy who is in similar situation as Zhang, Erica's mother, a solution sooner will be better. "I hope this is not one of those things that get discussed and then forgotten. Kids grow up quickly, if (the DOE) doesn't take action quickly, it could be too late soon," said Liu.

This story was written as part of an education reporting fellowship granted by New York Community Media Alliance.