It’s standard practice for school districts to collect emergency contact information when families enroll their children in school and update that information every year.
But that emergency information has taken on new meaning for educators after the Trump administration rescinded federal policy in January 2025 shielding schools from immigration enforcement activity.
Now, district leaders such as Superintendent Zena Stenvik are more proactive in emergency planning with families as fears have risen about the possibility of federal agents detaining parents and guardians, leaving students behind.
Since the federal immigration policy shifts of 2025, Stenvik’s Columbia Heights district staff in Minnesota has handed out forms that allow parents to delegate parental authority, providing temporary guardianship to a trusted contact if a parent is detained. Several district staff members became certified to work as notaries so they could visit families at home and help complete these forms.
By last winter, Stenvik and her staff witnessed in real time the value of that preparation as thousands of federal agents descended onto the Twin Cities in an aggressive immigration enforcement operation that took the lives of two American citizens.
The Columbia Heights district, which serves more than 3,400 students, sits about seven miles from downtown Minneapolis and serves a diverse immigrant population.
“As an educator, our role is always to protect children, to serve families, to do the very best for kids,” Stenvik said. “And having a conversation with a parent about what happens if you have to leave your child behind and essentially give your child away to someone else, it’s heart wrenching to even think about that.”
Educators and immigrant student advocates alike say that this proactive collection of emergency contact information—and emergency family planning in general—has felt more urgent in the last school year than in years prior due to the heightened immigration enforcement taking place across the country.
Emergency planning remains a priority moving forward, educators said, even if it’s an emotionally fraught process.
Districts work to avoid the worst-case scenario
In the past school year, ImmSchools, a nonprofit working with K-12 schools on how to serve undocumented students, says more of its partner districts in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and California not only became more forward-looking in collecting families’ emergency contact information, but also in updating that information throughout the school year.
Students left behind after federal agents detain or deport parents and guardians could miss out on key wraparound services if there are no emergency plans in place, said Esmeralda Alday, the senior director of programs and partnerships at ImmSchools.
It’s why ImmSchools staff have been advocating for districts to be proactive in securing at least a secondary contact, if not an authorization form, for who can temporarily care for students before foster care becomes the sole option.
“The last thing that we want is for children to end up in foster care and end up in a very tricky system that makes it even harder for reunification,” said Kimberly Valle, a director of programs and partnerships at ImmSchools.
The Trump administration has framed its new policy around safety. “ICE does not target schools, but we will not allow criminals to hide in our nation’s schools and put the safety of children at risk,” said Lauren Bis, the Department of Homeland Security’s acting assistant secretary in a statement last month.
According to the federal Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, which is maintained by the administration for children and families in the U.S. Department of Human and Health Services, in fiscal 2024, an estimated 156 U.S. children (out of a total of nearly 173,000) entered foster care under the circumstance of parental immigration detainment or deportation. In fiscal 2025, that number grew to 232 (out of a total of 175,000). The dashboard includes both children under 18 and young people between the ages of 18-23.
The Chelsea school district in Massachusetts experienced cases of deported parents this past school year, according to Superintendent Almudena Abeyta. Thanks to plans in place, the district was able to offer wraparound services such as counseling for the students and broader support for temporary caregivers.
Abeyta and her communications director made plans to have schools get updated emergency contact information in the middle of the school year. It was done out of an abundance of caution as more federal agents were spotted in the area.
“In all of my career, and I’ve been in education almost 30 years now, I have not had to be this proactive,” Abeyta said.
Stenvik, in Minnesota, shares the sentiment.
The Columbia Heights district has had years of experience serving immigrant communities. But under the large-scale federal operation earlier this year, everything changed.
Stenvik navigated the high-profile detention of her 5-year-old student Liam Conejo Ramos, who was later released. Community members, part of a rapid response team, contacted Stenvik directly for weeks to notify her of raids.
The superintendent would then pull up student information tied to those addresses and personally contact families to see if they needed any kind of support. The district encouraged families to fill out U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement form 60-001, a third-party privacy waiver, that allowed local congressional leaders to take up families’ immigration cases.
“These are our neighbors, these are amazing families, caring people. They’re not statistics, they’re not just numbers for me, or for us,” Stenvik said.
Emergency planning remains a priority
For now, even as large-scale immigration enforcement operations like those seen in Minnesota this year appear to have waned, advocates say the importance and urgency of discussing emergency plans with families remains.
Most recently, immigration agents killed two immigrants in their vehicles in Houston and coastal Maine in July, according to news reports.
For the coming school year, advocates advise school staff keep the conversations about emergency contact information and planning general. The information, after all, is necessary from all families regardless of their immigration status for non-immigration related emergencies.
Not citing immigration concerns in these conversations can also avoid adding unnecessary stress to families, advocates said.
Educators must also remember that not all parents can count on emergency contacts such as relatives or friends, and at times some parents may think it best to be detained with their children.
“It’s really an individual family decision,” Stenvik said.
Federal agents are no longer driving around her school buildings, but families remain on edge, Stenvik said. The district remains committed to supporting families in need including connecting them to resources such as legal assistance.
“Schools have always served as a hub for the community. We’re just going continue to be the hub and that source of information and support,” she said.
