Key Takeaways
- • Educators across the country report that immigration raids and fear of ICE activity are driving student absences, transfers, and family departures, with one Arizona school reporting a near 50 percent absence rate on a single day after a rumor of ICE presence at a local elementary school.
- • A July 2025 University of California, Riverside report, cited by the National Education Association, found that even the threat of family separation can cause anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and school absenteeism among children of immigrant families.
- • Child psychologist Allison Bassett Ratto warns that the stress and trauma children experience from immigration enforcement can become chronic, with immediate and long-term effects on mental and physical health.
- • Following the Department of Homeland Security's rescission of the "sensitive locations" memo, which had discouraged enforcement in schools, churches, and hospitals, educators report plummeting attendance and families disappearing overnight.
- • Educators and community groups are responding with red cards outlining legal rights, Know Your Rights trainings, carpool networks, food support, rapid response teams, and advocacy at school board meetings.
Summary
The National Education Association (NEA) published a first-person account of how immigration enforcement is affecting K-12 classrooms, drawing on reports from educators in Texas, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Many of the accounts describe children who stop attending school out of fear that a parent or family member will be detained. In one San Antonio case cited by the NEA, a fifth-grade boy was briefly missing from his class and his mother panicked before learning he had simply gone to the restroom, illustrating how the rumor or mere presence of ICE activity can prompt alarm.
The NEA reports that the effects extend beyond individual absences. A Michigan U.S. history teacher described students who stopped attending or transferred to other schools, and families who moved back to their home countries because they felt unsafe. A Baytown, Texas, teacher recounted a student who had been working full-time to support himself after his father was deported and his mother was in Honduras, and who stopped attending school near the end of the 2024-2025 school year. The NEA also cites an Arizona school with a near 50 percent absence rate on one day after a rumor of ICE activity, and a Michigan seventh-grader who missed three weeks of school.
Child psychologist Allison Bassett Ratto of Washington, D.C., told the NEA that enforcement practices create a sense that "nowhere and no one is safe" for children and that the resulting stress can become chronic. The article also cites a July 2025 University of California, Riverside report stating that "even the threat of separation can generate profound emotional harm" for children of immigrant families. The NEA attributes the rise in fear partly to the Department of Homeland Security's decision to rescind the "sensitive locations" memo.
In response, educators have distributed wallet-size red cards explaining legal rights when approached by ICE agents, and many are taking Know Your Rights trainings. Community groups have organized carpools and walking buses to school, mutual aid food networks, safe presence shifts near schools, fundraising and legal aid for detained families, and rapid response teams that document enforcement activity. The article notes that a district in one case told educators to stay out of the matter, and that educators nonetheless shared red cards with members and families. The NEA's framing is advocacy-oriented, and the article presents these figures and accounts from educators' reports rather than independently verified data.
The NEA reports that the effects extend beyond individual absences. A Michigan U.S. history teacher described students who stopped attending or transferred to other schools, and families who moved back to their home countries because they felt unsafe. A Baytown, Texas, teacher recounted a student who had been working full-time to support himself after his father was deported and his mother was in Honduras, and who stopped attending school near the end of the 2024-2025 school year. The NEA also cites an Arizona school with a near 50 percent absence rate on one day after a rumor of ICE activity, and a Michigan seventh-grader who missed three weeks of school.
Child psychologist Allison Bassett Ratto of Washington, D.C., told the NEA that enforcement practices create a sense that "nowhere and no one is safe" for children and that the resulting stress can become chronic. The article also cites a July 2025 University of California, Riverside report stating that "even the threat of separation can generate profound emotional harm" for children of immigrant families. The NEA attributes the rise in fear partly to the Department of Homeland Security's decision to rescind the "sensitive locations" memo.
In response, educators have distributed wallet-size red cards explaining legal rights when approached by ICE agents, and many are taking Know Your Rights trainings. Community groups have organized carpools and walking buses to school, mutual aid food networks, safe presence shifts near schools, fundraising and legal aid for detained families, and rapid response teams that document enforcement activity. The article notes that a district in one case told educators to stay out of the matter, and that educators nonetheless shared red cards with members and families. The NEA's framing is advocacy-oriented, and the article presents these figures and accounts from educators' reports rather than independently verified data.
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