Include Southeast Asian American ethnic studies in school curricula

Six people wear traditional attire adorned with flowers

Learning about the histories, culture, and experiences of our diverse communities, including SEAAs, benefits all students.

Key resources:

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“I’m constantly telling people about our history, or some of the struggles we are going through, because they don’t get to learn about it. [Teachers] don’t teach it in school. I have to educate people about us, and that’s hard.”

From our “Can You See Me” report

“Next year, it will be 50 years since our Hmong families left their homeland to escape war and come to America, and yet many people still don’t know why we are here and who we are.”

AAPI Coalition of Wisconsin

“Recognizing the Laotian refugee experience in our schools not only provides Southeast Asian American youth with the visibility, acknowledgment, and celebration they deserve but also enriches the education of all students by deepening their understanding around a subject that is historically overlooked.”

Laotian American National Alliance
Shania smiling.

“Ethnic studies is particularly important for Asian Americans because the racialization of Asian Americans is deeply haunted by American and European military intervention and imperialism in Asia and the foundations of settler-colonialism and anti-Blackness in the United States.”

SEARAC intern
People pose, some jumping in the area, around a sign saying Made By Refugees

People Power in Action

Post-its and handwritten messages on a posterboard labeled with the year 1975

Increase federal funding for Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions

These colleges and universities are essential for increasing higher education access and success to low-income, first generation Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander students, including SEAAs.

Increase federal funding to support SEAA students’ success

SEAAs’ refugee history, their invisibility in education data and policy, and systemic racism create barriers to our students’ educational success. Our government must address the disparities that SEAA students experience and invest in their futures.

🚨🆕! APIAVote and AAPI Data, in collaboration with NCAPA, have produced the 2026 AAPI Voters Data and Narrative Toolkit ahead of this November’s elections. AAPI voters are the fastest-growing voter demographic with tremendous potential to impact the outcome in key races across the country. Outreach to these communities needs to be prioritized, and this toolkit is meant to help elevate that argument to news media, funders, campaigns, elected representatives, and other relevant stakeholders to better understand and engage AAPI communities! 🗳️📢

This toolkit provides a standardized, evidence-based, and field-tested set of facts and messaging resources for AAPI community organizers and advocates and will be updated as new data becomes available.

🔗 Explore today at the link in bio!

#MidtermElections #AAPIVoters #AAPIElectorate #VoterData

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Have you already taken action to ensure AANHPI students are seen and supported? 

SEARAC, NCAPA, and more than 50 organizations are calling on Congress to cosponsor the All Students Count Act. The bill would provide more detailed education data to help schools better understand student outcomes and direct resources where they are needed most.

Join us in urging your representative and senators to act. Take action at the link in our bio.

#AllStudentsCount #AANHPI #EducationEquity #DataEquity #BackToSchool

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SEARAC and AAPI Data’s latest fact sheet, Southeast Asian American Deportations: Trends and Policy Implications, makes one thing clear: we must act now to keep our families together. 

Southeast Asian American communities are being targeted at an alarming rate, with 42% of ALL Southeast Asian deportations since 1998 happening in just the last two fiscal years, including a more than 20x increase in deportations of our elders. People who have called the United States home for decades, many since childhood, are being sent to countries they no longer have connection to. We need policy solutions that ensure dignity for our communities and respect for human life. Read the fact sheet and our policy recommendations at the link in our bio or bit.ly/seadeportationtrends2026

@searac @aapidata

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As students head back to school, AANHPI students deserve to be seen and supported.

SEARAC, NCAPA, and more than 50 organizations are calling on Congress to cosponsor the All Students Count Act. The bill would provide more detailed education data to help schools better understand student outcomes and direct resources where they are needed most.

Join us in urging your representative and senators to act. Take action at the link in our bio.

#AllStudentsCount #AANHPI #EducationEquity #DataEquity #BackToSchool

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