This back-to-school season, educators prepare for ICE encounters

As tens of millions of U.S. public school students begin a new academic year, some of the nation’s largest school districts are taking steps to shield them from President Donald Trump’s expansive deportation operation.

New York City’s school system unanimously passed a resolution this year that prohibits Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from entering schools and accessing campus facilities, students and student records without a judicial warrant. Philadelphia public schools issued a statement this week outlining what school leaders should do if a federal agent requests access to a school building and asks to detain or interview a student. And in Los Angeles, school leaders announced Monday that they are erecting “safe zones” in areas targeted by ICE to protect students as they travel to and from school.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials unveiled the new policy the same day ICE agents pulled a 15-year-old student from a relative’s car outside Arleta High School in Los Angeles. The agents handcuffed and briefly detained the teen in what turned out to be a case of mistaken identity.

“This cannot happen,” LAUSD Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho said at a news conference that day. “This is the exact type of incident that traumatizes our community.”

As the Trump administration increases its enforcement action, broadening who they detain and where they conduct raids, parents fear that school campuses — once considered off limits to federal agents under long-standing ICE policy — won’t be spared from the crackdowns.

There are roughly 733,000 school-aged undocumented children living in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank. In the United States, children have been legally entitled to a free education regardless of immigration status since the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe. School leaders across the country told The Washington Post in January, days after the second Trump administration took office, that they are trying to reassure immigrant parents that it is still safe to send their children to school.

But in an effort to carry out what Trump has promised will be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, his administration has rolled back ICE’s “sensitive locations” policy, which, with some exceptions, required agents to obtain special approval to conduct enforcement actions in certain places like schools.

“The atmosphere is one of concern. Parents are very hopeful that their kids can have some sense of normalcy,” said Evelyn Aleman, founder of Our Voice, a local group in Los Angeles that serves as a forum for Latino and Indigenous families. “But at the same time, they’re concerned because the raids are still happening. People are still getting picked off the street.”

Earlier this month, federal immigration officers arrested a high school student in Virginia outside a courthouse. ICE agents in Massachusetts detained a second student while he was on his way to volleyball practice in May. At least three New York public school students have been detained by ICE since January.

In Los Angeles, school officials said agents from the Department of Homeland Security attempted to visit two elementary schools earlier this year to speak with specific students. While the agents were denied entry because they did not have a warrant, Carvalho said LAUSD remains concerned with what happens “beyond the schoolhouse, where we lose jurisdiction.”

With that in mind, he said, LAUSD will distribute “family-preparedness” packets containing know-your-rights information, resources and telephone hotlines to call should “anyone in that family be apprehended.” The school district has also altered and added bus routes and deployed more than 1,000 staff members on the first day of school with focus on areas that have seen ICE activity. The district is also seeking volunteers who can help immigrant students travel to and from school safely.

Aleman said immigrant parents her group is in touch with in Los Angeles are considering various plans for their children. She knows some who are having a trusted neighbor walk their children to school, to avoid encounters with ICE. Others are relying on school-provided or public transportation for the same reason. A few are even considering enrolling their children in online classes, she said.

Carvalho told reporters Monday that the school district has seen a 7% increase in enrollment for online academies, though he did not clarify whether the spike was connected to immigration fears.

LAUSD’s student safety rollout follows similar actions from school districts across the country. In New York, where roughly 900,000 students are enrolled in the public school system, district leaders have advised principals to obtain a copy of the ICE warrant, court order or subpoena if agents come asking to see a student. The district instructs principals to then ask agents to wait outside the building and call the district’s lawyer for further guidance.

“NYCPS does not consent to nonlocal law enforcement accessing school facilities, and school principals and other school personnel may not permit access without legal approval,” the protocol reads.

Tony Watlington, superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, released similar guidance Wednesday, reminding school leaders ahead of the first day of school, which is on Aug. 25, that they should decline to “provide any information about students, families or staff unless directed by the office of general counsel.”

Sylvia Barragan, a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools, told The Post in an email that ICE agents are barred from accessing district facilities without a signed judicial warrant.

In Miami-Dade County, where a middle school science teacher was detained and deported to Honduras earlier this year, Superintendent Jose L. Dotres stressed to families that it is safe to send their children to school.

“We’re here to service all students, all families,” he said, speaking to reporters on Thursday, the first day of the academic school year in the county. “We have to have students in place to learn. It’s their future.”