Now that immigration officers are no longer discouraged from making arrests or conducting interrogations at schools, bus stops, and child care centers, educators are asking: what now?
On Jan. 21 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security scrapped a 13-year-old immigration enforcement policy on sensitive locations or protected areas, which included schools and related locations.
Regardless of that federal policy change—which is one component of President Donald Trump’s far-reaching efforts to deport people who are in the U.S. unlawfully—immigrant students and families, including those who are undocumented, still have rights under U.S. law, legal experts say. That includes the constitutional right to a free, public education as determined by the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Plyler v. Doe case. Student records also remain protected by federal laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
Legal experts, immigration advocates, and educators alike say there are a number of things schools can currently do to protect students’ and families’ rights and ensure their safe access to education.
“The sensitive locations memo of the Department of Homeland Security is not the thing that made schools safe for children. It is the people in the school building that make schools safe for children,” said Alejandra Vázquez Baur, co-founder and director of the National Newcomer Network, a coalition of educators, researchers, and advocates who push for equitable education for newcomer students.
“And we will continue to do so, not just because it’s moral, but because it’s still the law.”
Schools can establish, share, and train on immigration protocols, experts say
District leaders can create, update, and release districtwide protocols on how to deal with immigration enforcement officers and communicate any changes to all school leaders, said Vázquez Baur.
As the Trump administration continues to reshape federal immigration policy, education leaders will need to pay attention to any changes and update their district policy accordingly, she added.
District and school leaders can also train all staff on students’ and families’ rights under federal law. They can also provide training on steps to follow should U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers request entry to a school or request student information. This includes training school bus drivers, custodial staff, security guards, front desk personnel, and more.
“It can look like making sure that the district protocol is hung up in visible places in the front [of the school] or that those frontline stakeholders have copies of [the protocols] to show immigration enforcement and to show parents because it signals to parents that this is a safe space and there’s a protocol in place,” Vázquez Baur.
Training can cover, for instance, the issue of warrants for entry to school buildings.
In most situations, an ICE agent will likely have an administrative warrant, said Hector Villagra, the vice president of policy advocacy and community education at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. An administrative warrant differs from those that show probable cause of a criminal offense. Administrative warrants aren’t approved by a judge or magistrate, so it does not authorize the ICE agent to access non-public areas of school grounds or authorize the agent to search school records—meaning a school official can deny the agent entry to the school or access to records, Villagra said.
If an ICE agent presents a federal warrant signed by a federal judge, then the school should have policies in place to alert the district superintendent, legal counsel for the district, and the parents if a child is implicated in the warrant. School officials should not allow any interrogation of a child until a parent or guardian grants permission, Villagra said.
It’s important for school staff to know how to distinguish what type of warrant an officer presents, he added.
For instance, if an immigration officer presents a warrant to a janitor at one end of a school campus, that janitor should be trained to direct the officer to the principal’s office, Villagra said.
But school leaders and staff should immediately contact higher-level administrators or lawyers to assess any documentation from any school area, and that be clearly written into district policy and part of districtwide training, Vázquez Baur added.
ICE did not respond to EdWeek’s request for comment prior to publication.
Schools should keep students and families informed on changes in policies
Training on immigration protocols, including how to navigate potentially tense interactions with immigration officers, shouldn’t be limited to school and district staff, said Viridiana Carrizales, founder and chief executive officer of ImmSchools, based in Texas, which is a nonprofit that provides provides training and workshops on immigration topics for schools.
The week before the federal policy change on sensitive locations, Carrizales led a “know-your-rights” presentation for middle school students in the Lone Star state. She reviewed what a sample federal warrant signed by a federal judge looks like. A 7th grader asked to get a photo of the document. He said he has a single father and as the eldest sibling it may fall to him to answer the door at home when his father is at work. He wanted to know under what circumstance he should open the door to an officer.
ImmSchools typically offers these presentations and workshops for families but also offers them to children in cases where parents work long hours while the kids are at home, Carrizales said.
She added that she has begun receiving worried messages from administrators, teachers, and families who are taking the federal immigration policy change as a sign that schools must brace for immigration raids.
Missy Testerman, the 2024 Teacher of the Year who works with immigrant students, said in a statement that “policies that instill fear also negatively impact an educator’s ability to work with families. My students have been successful in part due to my ability to engage with their families and communicate information about their academic progress.”
Addressing families’ fears of ICE agents coming to schools, and getting ahead of any misinformation around raids and arrests, is another important way for school and district leaders to be supportive, said Vázquez Baur.
There may be a sudden rise in student absences driven by families’ fears about sending their children to school. Education leaders can help assuage those worries, Vázquez Baur said. Legal experts and advocates urge families to continue to send their children to schools.
“Leaders … have to take the responsibility of communicating accordingly, sharing the right resources, and then preparing for the worst case scenario and having those preparations in place,” Vázquez Baur said.
Various organizations including the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, and the advocacy and research group Intercultural Development Research Association have all also shared tip sheets and guides with additional suggestions and guidance for schools. State leaders from Kansas and California have also reiterated schools’ responsibilities in protecting students and their data.
