Schools addressing immigrant families’ fears of deportation

The schools superintendent in Harrisonburg, Va., was meeting parents this month when a mother broke down in tears, explaining that she was undocumented. What would the school do, she asked, if she became separated from her children?

"I remember walking up to her and putting my arm on her shoulder and saying, 'Your child is safe at our school,' " said Scott Kizner, the city schools chief. But he also advised those at the meeting in the Shenandoah Valley that any parents worried about deportation "need to make plans."

Across the country, President Donald Trump's promise to crack down on illegal immigration is leading schools with large immigrant communities to consider how to care for children whose parents could be detained in federal raids. Parents, teachers and administrators have raised questions about how schools should respond if U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents come to a school to take away students or obtain records —even though the agency's policy restricts enforcement actions on school grounds.

Officials in Sacramento, Denver, Chicago and Miami have declared their schools havens, out of reach of ICE agents without special permission or a warrant.

The Los Angeles school board voted days after the November election to resist any Trump administration attempts to use student data against students or families in immigration matters. A Wisconsin school district sent information home advising parents to keep their doors shut, stay silent and refuse to sign anything if ICE agents visit their home.

In Virginia, the state schools chief urged local superintendents this month to ensure schools have current emergency contact information for parents and to prepare for situations in which children are stranded at school. The Maryland State Department of Education has not issued similar guidance, but a spokesman said the state's long-standing policies mirror Virginia's. D.C. Public Schools put out a statement in six languages urging advance preparation: "Discuss whether you would wish your children to remain here, in the United States, or whether you would want your children going with you."

Educators say connecting parents to community resources to help them prepare for family- separation scenarios is part of their job to ensure that children feel as secure as possible in class.

"Our goal is to get children in school and have them engage in learning," said Steven Staples, superintendent of public instruction for Virginia. "A frightened child doesn't learn much." He also said the state doesn't want children "to be missing days of school because of concerns about immigration status."

Millions of U.S. children face growing uncertainty at home because of shifts in immigration policy. The Pew Research Center estimates 3.9 million schoolchildren had an unauthorized immigrant parent in 2014 — or 7.3 percent of all schoolchildren. About 725,000 of those children were unauthorized immigrants themselves.

Trump has pledged to deport millions of unauthorized immigrants and erect a wall on the southern border to stop more from entering the country. Since taking office, he has expanded the pool of immigrants prioritized for deportation, sped up some deportation proceedings and called for hiring more border patrol and immigration enforcement officers.

ICE arrests of undocumented immigrants in recent weeks have drawn widespread publicity.

All of these developments have spread fear among immigrants. Some have retreated to their homes and stopped going to work.