Raiding schools

Only a few years after the pandemic, young kids in this country are seeing a whole new disruption to their learning: immigration raids.

One of the Trump administration’s first actions after assuming office was to rescind the Biden administration’s guidelines for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which limited enforcement activity in “sensitive locations” like schools and churches.

Since then, immigration raids have escalated – often under questionable pretenses. This spring, immigration agents tried to enter two elementary schools in Los Angeles. At the door, agents said they wanted to determine students’ well-being and claimed to have authorization from the children’s caretakers.

Administrators denied them entry – and when they spoke with caretakers later, they learned that agents had lied about receiving permission. “I’m absolutely incensed that DHS agents would try to enter elementary schools,” said Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA). “These are children who should be learning to read and write, not cowering in fear of being ripped away from their homes.”

Unfortunately, schools are no longer a safe haven for our students. You can imagine the trauma and disruption that comes from armed agents entering schools and removing students. But these raids will also have long-term implications on learning outcomes, mental health, and even school funding for children enrolled in public schools nationwide.

And we’re seeing that now in rising rates of absenteeism.

In June, Stanford professor Thomas Dee published a groundbreaking report detailing the relationship between raids and school absences. Focusing on recent raids in California’s Central Valley region, Dee studied attendance data from over three years at five nearby school districts. Dee was able to correlate raids with a 22 percent increase in student absenteeism, particularly affecting youngest learners.

In the weeks following Dee’s report, media outlets from across the county – from New York to Denver and Chicago – reported similar patterns of immigration raids leading to increased student absences. Fearful of raids, families across the nation have opted to keep their children home.

In many states, including California, school funding is determined by average daily attendance. This means that the more students miss school, the less that school will receive going forward. So when a raid forces a student to miss school, it doesn’t just impact their own learning – it also means fewer resources for their classmates, teachers, and their entire district.

Excerpted: ‘Keep Immigration Raids Out of Schools’. Courtesy: Counterpunch.org