As new grades approach, the typical worry of getting supplies and organizing schedules gets worse for families in mixed immigration conditions. I wonder if I’ll send my children to class due to fear of an immigrant attack at school.
“I’ve heard a lot of people ask what to do,” said Oleana, a mother of four who is registered with a school in Phoenix, Arizona.
The fact that places like churches and schools are no longer considered “sensitive” spaces from immigration enforcement behaviour “causing a lot of fear,” said a Venezuelan woman.
Until late January, when President Donald Trump took office, immigration and customs enforcement activities were restricted at churches, schools and hospitals.
The Trump administration has defended its decision to allow immigrant raids in previous sensitive places such as schools. “ICE usually does not carry out immigration enforcement activities on schools or school buses,” the agency told NBC News in March, adding that immigration lawsuits near the school are from a “case-by-case resolution.”
But the fear of possible immigrant attacks at schools doesn’t just come from parents. Last weekend, the Los Angeles Teachers Union held a protest calling for the district to do more to protect students from immigrant families.
The last semester was the anxiety that followed the immigrant attacks led to missed schools, according to Thomas S. Dee, an expert in the Stanford School of Education.
Dee published an analysis in June. The result states that “recent raids have seen a 22% increase in daily student absences” in California’s Central Valley, an agricultural area home to many immigrant farmers.
He noted that the absence of school was particularly noteworthy among kindergarten and elementary school students.
“When the attack began, we saw a sudden increase in student absences, which are very distinctive to the typical patterns seen throughout the school year,” Dee said in an interview with Notisias Telemundo.
What the numbers indicate
Beyond California, states like Washington and Illinois have seen similar situations in some school districts.
In the suburbs of Seattle, the Highline district, which operates nearly 30 schools, is famous for its impact. So the data show that chronic absenteeism – lacking more than 10% of class period – rose to 48% for the academic year that ended in July, reversing the profits the district has made over the past two years to reduce the K-12 absence rate.
In Chicago, high school educators also reported 20% lower attendance compared to the previous year.
However, Hispanic K-12 students thought they were likely to accumulate more absenteeism before Trump’s second term. Some factors include working early to support a family, health-related reasons, or having to take care of the family during school hours.
In Illinois, Hispanic students achieved the second highest chronic absence rate at 33% throughout 2024, but 26% across all demographic groups, according to national school board data. Noticias Telemundo contacted the Board and the Illinois area to retrieve updated data by June 2025, but no response was received.
The current situation adds to the disruption in schooling that has been taking place since the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in widespread academic delays.
“We are in an environment where we have seen historical losses in student achievement, an increase in chronic absenteeism and a noticeable increase in mental health challenges young people face,” Dee said. “And I believe these immigrant raids will only add to the already substantial challenges of academic recovery that schools are currently facing.”
Less resources and more anxiety
The lack of existence several times during the school year has a major impact on student education.
“This massive absence not only leads to poor academic achievement, but also students drop out of school, and the impact of dropping out of high school is profound,” the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) said in an email.
The association emphasized that non-high school graduates’ earnings are significantly lower than those who do.
Experts say the impact goes beyond the classroom.
“Pre-regular school attendance is one of the most powerful predictors of long-term health, happiness and success,” said Josh Shalfstein of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and director of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at a meeting in mid-June.
This is because absences can affect the child’s emotional and intellectual development. For example, they can cause anxiety disorders that further harm the child’s well-being and further encourage school absences.
Several associations have launched campaigns to seek school absences that are considered public health issues.
“If multiple students in the classroom are chronically absent, churn in the classroom will affect everyone, even better attendees. It’s difficult for teachers to teach and set classroom norms, and students tend to connect with each other.”
According to DEE, chronic absence due to fear of immigrant attacks
“This has financial implications for the school district as well,” he said. According to DEE, California is one of the few states that on average support attendance for a day, so if a child shows fewer children, that means they have fewer resources.
“I would expect these communities and the economic consequences to provocative economic outcomes on the financial viability of the school districts serving them,” Dee said.
In many districts, repeated offences related to absence can also lead to young people being sent to school truancy courts. So the fine ranges from paying the fine to working hours in juvenile detention.
Latino, black and indigenous youth in the United States are already more frequently referred to school courts than non-Hispanic white students. This means that absenteeism in previous demographic groups is likely to be recorded as “unfair or unimmunized.”
Preventive strategies
There are strategies to combat absenteeism in response to years of concern about school refusal.
“There are many steps to improving attendance.
Attended the Connecticut schools at the beginning of the year due to fears of an immigrant attack, measures such as contacting families directly and developing contingency plans successfully curbed school refusal towards the end of the semester.
These strategies include contacting community leaders, such as local church figures and food bank workers. They encourage them to stay in touch with certain families and continue to send their children to school.
Another strategy supported by the NASSP principal is to maintain close contact with students. For example, call your family home to check.
Experts hope that these types of measures will help address the issue of absenteeism for students in mixed immigrant states who fear potential migrant attacks.
“In some districts, we hear from students who are unable to regularly attend classes due to reasons such as the fear of an attack, and they are offered virtual learning,” Dee said. “I think educators need to be better aware of the challenges students are facing right now because of these issues.”
For now, protests like the Teachers Union in Los Angeles are exploring additional options, including a district-wide campaign to educate parents about the importance of sharing emergency contacts with school administrators if their parents are deported while their children are at school.
In Washington’s Highline School District, communications manager Tovtapper said in an email that he “is committed to protecting the rights and dignity of all students, families and staff,” saying that all students “have the right to public education” protected by law, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status.
An earlier version of this story was first published on Noticias Telemundo.
