Amid stepped-up immigration enforcement activity nationwide, how many children will actually head back to school this year?
That’s the question weighing on school district leaders across the United States who are deploying resources and launching messaging campaigns to ease concerns among immigrant families and encourage daily student attendance.
In Los Angeles, where immigration raids and protests put residents on edge this summer, local and school district leaders gathered in a show of unity on Monday to outline their approach.
Why We Wrote This
The U.S. already had a student absentee crisis. Then worries about potential ICE enforcement outside schools kept more children home last spring. As a new school year begins, Los Angeles and other districts are adding bus routes and crisis managers to encourage all students to come to class.
“We are concerned about the first, second, third weeks of school,” said Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), during a news conference where he alternated between speaking English and Spanish. “We do not know what the enrollment will be like.”
As a nationwide absenteeism crisis continues, support measures being offered by the district hint at what it might take to keep kids learning: additional bus routes for students whose parents are afraid to drop them off, crisis-response teams offering in-home services, and expanded virtual education options.
Mr. Carvalho urged federal immigration authorities to spare school zones from enforcement activity.
“Can we declare, perhaps, that within a certain distance from schools – one hour before the school day begins and an hour after the school day ends – that no such actions take place in those areas for the sake of our children?” he asked. “Can we at least agree to do that?”
Similar conversations have ramped up in cities such as Albuquerque, New Mexico; San Diego; and Phoenix, where school officials are reminding families of immigration-related policies meant to ensure student safety and give parents peace of mind.
That latter part is especially critical if parents worry they might be the target of immigration enforcement operations happening near schools, says Julie Sugarman, associate director for K-12 education research at the Migration Policy Institute.
“We haven’t seen any activity inside schools, but we certainly have seen it around schools,” she says. “So, the parents’ worries are considerable. And parents want to be involved and schools want parents to be involved, especially for the younger kids.”
Earlier on Monday, Mr. Carvalho said, a 15-year-old boy was temporarily detained by unidentified federal agents in what is believed to be a case of mistaken identity outside Arleta High School. Allegations that Border Patrol targeted the school are false, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson responded to the Monitor. “Agents were conducting a targeted operation on … a Salvadoran national and suspected MS-13 pledge with prior criminal convictions in the broader vicinity of Arleta,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Damian Dovarganes/AP/File
Schools as sensitive locations
This year, the Trump administration rescinded a policy that protected certain sensitive locations, such as churches and schools, from immigration enforcement operations. A former immigration enforcement official interviewed by the Monitor said he believes the move was aimed at making it easier for immigration authorities to enter neighborhoods, not schools, previously considered off-limits. The policy change set off concern about the ripple effect on children if such action started occurring on school grounds.
By and large, that hasn’t come to pass. In Las Vegas, Superintendent Jhone Ebert told the Nevada Independent that federal officials have said that immigration enforcement will not take place at Clark County schools.
While touring a middle school on students’ first day of class on Monday, Ms. Ebert reiterated her large, urban district’s commitment to student well-being. That includes working with social services to help children whose families might already be experiencing separations or deportations.
“Being proactive in any situation will help alleviate but won’t get rid of the stress that is there,” says Ms. Ebert, whose district is the fifth-largest in the U.S.
In Los Angeles, Mr. Carvalho noted an incident in the spring when Department of Homeland Security officers attempted to enter two Los Angeles elementary schools to talk to students. They were not granted entry. DHS officials have said the visit was intended as a welfare check on migrant students.
LAUSD, like other school districts, does not allow immigration officers inside schools without a judicial warrant.
The district, home to a heavily Latino student population, covers 720 square miles. Mr. Carvalho acknowledged the district does not have the manpower to know what’s happening in all corners of its jurisdiction, hence its reliance on community partnerships and effective communication. The district announced former Los Angeles School Police Chief Steven Zipperman will lead a work group dedicated to that purpose.
Mr. Carvalho says the district has also been reaching out to thousands of families of newcomers, English-language learners, and students who, “as a result of fear,” stopped coming to school last spring.
“Eyes on the street”
On Thursday, when summer ends and LAUSD students return to class, the district is also placing 1,000-plus staff members at schools in neighborhoods that have seen higher levels of immigration enforcement actions. The additional “eyes on the street,” the superintendent says, will help provide information to schools and the district’s police officers if anything indicates compromised student safety.
“We are deploying resources at a level never before seen in our district,” Mr. Carvalho said.
Just over the San Gabriel Mountains in northern Los Angeles County, the Lancaster School District has been on a similar mission to address parent concerns and keep children in class. Starting late in 2024, parents began calling the district with questions pertaining to immigration and safety, says Karla Estupinian, the district’s public information and communications officer.
Since then, the nearly 16,000-student district has distributed fact sheets, hosted a handful of community meetings that drew dozens of parents, and formed an immigrant relations district committee, Ms. Estupinian says. Family ambassadors and community liaisons also regularly speak with parents and guardians of district students.
“I think that now families do understand that they are safe in our school sites,” she says. “They have that trust that they can come talk to us if something does come up.”
School districts have also started alerting community members of possible immigration enforcement activity near school.
Last month, the leader of the Salinas Union High School District on California’s central coast posted on X about “unconfirmed reports” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement action near two district buildings. The post encouraged anyone with concerns to call the school district.
“Together, we will continue to protect, uplift, and care for one another,” Superintendent Zandra Jo Galván wrote.
Local leaders who attended the Los Angeles press conference on Monday echoed that sentiment. Ali Saleh, the mayor of Bell, California, where more than 90% of residents are Latino, said he would be patrolling schools alongside the city’s police officers.
“I want to make sure that all our students are protected and safe to go from their homes to the school,” said Mr. Saleh, whose own family immigrated to the United States from Lebanon.
