If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.
A sudden rise in absences. Elementary-aged students asking questions about immigration enforcement. A school principal publicly calling for, and later celebrating, the return of a local mother and three students detained by immigration officers.
Since January, school and district leaders across the country have been grappling with the varied ripple effects of President Donald Trump’s administration’s fast-paced changes to immigration policies, from no longer regarding schools as “protected areas” from immigration enforcement to more aggressive immigration arrests, including of international college students on visas and green cards.
Some state policymakers are even taking actions to undermine a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that guarantees undocumented students the right to a free, public education, either by proposing to charge undocumented students tuition to attend public school, deny them enrollment altogether, or require that students provide proof of citizenship or legal immigration status to enroll.
When U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon was recently asked by The 74 whether undocumented students are entitled to this right, she said, “I think we have to follow the law with that. Until the laws change, then we’re following the law, or the schools in those states are following the law. I’m certainly not instituting any of that.”
In the Sackets Harbor central school district in upstate New York, pre-K-12 Principal Jaime Cook published a letter online on April 5 calling for the release of a local mother and three students who were detained by immigration officers in March, according to news reports. On April 8, following a community rally in support of the family over the weekend, Superintendent Jennifer Gaffney said in an emailed statement that the family had been released “after 11 days of uncertainty” and were returning home to the village on Lake Ontario.
“We remain committed to providing the care, understanding, and sensitivity necessary for all students and staff as we begin the healing process from this traumatic experience,” Gaffney wrote.
Not all school and district leaders may find themselves advocating for the release of detained students and families, and many say they are wary of drawing attention to their schools in fear of being targeted by immigration enforcement.
But experts say there are strategies educators can proactively employ to ensure the well-being of all students at a time of uncertainty and stress in a rapidly changing immigration landscape. It’s critical work that benefits both immigrant students and the broader school community, they say. Research has shown students learn better when they feel they belong and are valued.
“We’re not in control of immigration policy or practice. We are in control of what goes on in our buildings and the relationships we build,” said Luma Mufleh, founder of Fugees Family, a national nonprofit that partners with public school districts to better serve refugee and immigrant students.
“And if you are a teacher, you know your kids cannot learn if they don’t feel safe.”
Concerns over deportations can lead to stress, absences
Educators might try to focus on the emotional well-being of immigrant students and families at this time, but the mental health implications of the mass deportations Trump called for since the campaign trail extend to all students, said Kiara Alvarez, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Bloomberg American Health Initiative, who specializes in youth mental health.
While approximately 651,000 undocumented immigrant children ages 3 to 17 were enrolled in U.S. schools in 2019, a total of about 6.3 million children lived in mixed-status households that year, defined as having at least one unauthorized immigrant household member and at least one person who is a U.S.-born citizen or a legal immigrant, according to the Migration Policy Institute’s analysis of U.S. Census data.
“Youth can really be affected by what’s happening with their peers or what they’re hearing on the news, even if it might not have a direct impact on their lives,” Alvarez said. “They may just be really scared and worried about what’s going to happen to their friends or what’s going to happen to people in their community.”
Being separated from a parent or caregiver is a core fear for children, Alvarez said. Past research examining the effects of family member deportations on children found these students experienced anxiety, depression, and even suicidal ideation at higher rates than their peers.
Students may also experience bullying at school, whether from peers threatening to call immigration officers on them, or teasing them about their immigrant status and language, Alvarez added. She’s found cases of such bullying happening even within Latino communities. In such cases, educators need to proactively address concerns and educate students on how their schools don’t tolerate such words and actions, Alvarez said.
It’s not always easy to pinpoint specific students who might be directly affected by deportations. Schools typically don’t collect students’ immigration information.
“This is such an invisible set of concerns. It’s not like when kids are sick and they can go to the nurse and they say, ‘You have a fever, here’s how we address this.’ It’s so under the surface,” said Nick Polyak, the superintendent of the Leyden high school district, near Chicago.
Polyak’s district of 3,500 high school students, three-quarters of whom are Hispanic, saw a rise in absences in January following Trump’s first-day executive orders on immigration, as did Wolfe Street Academy, a public charter community school in Baltimore.
The Maryland school of about 239 students, most of them Hispanic, was able to quickly bring families back by relying on decades of community outreach to emphasize that students belonged in school where they could have a sense of normalcy, said Mark Gaither, the principal.
Polyak’s Illinois district rebounded from absences by relaying a similar message that experts say school and district leaders should share widely: all students are welcome.
Schools can create a sense of belonging for all students
It’s important for school and district leaders not to underestimate the value of students’ sense of belonging in school, and the small gestures that can cultivate it, Alvarez said.
It can be as simple as a principal welcoming students each day in multiple languages, or as complex as a school providing dental and vision care and helping families write letters to landlords for apartment applications, as in the case of Wolfe Street Academy.
School leaders aren’t immigration experts. Yet Gaither, Polyak, and the administrators in Sackets Harbor, N.Y., all worked to direct families and students to trusted community resources—something experts recommend.
Thanks to a fellow principal’s contacts, Gaither brought in a former social worker who leads sessions at a local library where families can learn about resources and their rights. The school also directs families to local immigrant advocacy groups for questions and concerns.
Polyak sent a message to staff earlier this year reminding them that if a student has specific concerns, they should refer that student directly to their counselor. The counselor, when necessary, should bring it up with principals. Staff are also trained on what to do if immigration officers arrive on campus.
“I can’t say to every student, ‘When you get home at the end of the day, your parents are going to be there,’ because I don’t know what might happen in a place of work or at the grocery store,” Polyak said. “But I can tell them that here, we love all of our students, and we want them here.”
Mufleh, with the Fugees Family nonprofit, conducted trainings with partner schools in early January to help teachers practice conversations they might have with students about deportation fears.
“A lot of the teachers were afraid that those conversations were going to happen and they wouldn’t know what to do. So we practiced it,” Mufleh said. “Because you can’t overpromise and say, ‘You’re fine, you’re safe, nothing is going to happen.’ You have to be honest and truthful with kids.”
