How immigration enforcement has reached schools and bus stops since 2025, what rights students and families have and what action you can take this week to protect them.
Every child in the United States has a right to a free public K-12 education, whatever their immigration status. The Supreme Court set that rule in Plyler v. Doe in 1982 (Library of Congress). About 6.3 million children under 18 live with at least one unauthorized immigrant parent, and about 5.3 million of them are US citizens, according to the Migration Policy Institute's mid-2023 estimate (Migration Policy Institute). When immigration agents work near schools, these children and their classmates are the ones who stay home (Brookings).
For more than a decade, federal policy steered immigration arrests away from schools. A 2011 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo and a 2021 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo named schools, hospitals and places of worship as "sensitive locations" or "protected areas" (Global Refuge). Officers needed headquarters approval to act there. On Jan. 20, 2025, DHS rescinded that policy and left the decisions to officers in the field (NAFSA). A DHS spokesperson said, "Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest" (NAFSA). In February 2026, DHS posted that "ICE is NOT going to schools to arrest children" (Click2Houston).
Enforcement has since reached school grounds, bus stops and drop-off lines. K-12 Dive has tracked at least 17 ICE encounters on school grounds since the policy changed, according to Stateline in August 2026 (Stateline). In January 2026, agents in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, detained four students, including 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos in his driveway as he came home from school (MPR News). In Danbury, Connecticut, the mayor said agents detained close to 50 people over three days as school began in August 2026, and an advocate said agents took four parents at a bus stop (WFSB). Attendance fell with each surge. A Stanford study of five California Central Valley counties found students missed about 22 percent more days in spring 2025 (The Journalist's Resource). In Chicago, attendance dropped 1.25 percentage points after Operation Midway Blitz began in September 2025 (Chalkbeat). In a national survey, 64 percent of high school principals said students in immigrant families had missed school over immigration policy or rhetoric (Brookings).
As of September 2026, courts have not restored the old federal policy. Judges denied requests from Denver Public Schools in March 2025 (Chalkbeat) and from Minnesota districts and teachers in May 2026 (Sahan Journal). The Minnesota judge found the policy change did not alter DHS's legal authority (Sahan Journal). States have moved in both directions. More than a dozen states have passed laws to keep ICE away from schools (Stateline). California now bars schools from letting agents into nonpublic areas without a judicial warrant or court order (F3 Law). Illinois passed a law in December 2025 (NBC Chicago), and the Justice Department sued to block parts of it (Capitol News Illinois). Indiana passed a 2026 law barring districts from restricting staff cooperation with ICE (Stateline). Tennessee bills to track students' immigration status failed in 2025 and 2026 (Education Week).
10 actions — for yourself, your community and the country. Start with one.
Download free Know Your Rights red cards from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) in 59 languages. Leave a stack with your school's family liaison, a local church or a laundromat. The cards are free, so skip any seller that charges for them.
Use ILRC's Step-by-Step Family Preparedness Plan, available in English, Spanish and other languages. It covers choosing a backup caregiver, gathering documents and finding trusted legal help. Offer childcare or translation while a family fills it out, and use the National Immigration Legal Services Directory (immigrationadvocates.org/legaldirectory) to find a nonprofit lawyer for legal forms.
Sign up for public comment and ask the board to adopt a written policy. Sample wording: "My name is ___, and I have a child at ___. I am asking the board to adopt a policy that requires a warrant signed by a judge before any immigration agent enters nonpublic areas of our schools, bars staff from sharing student information without a court order or parent consent and trains front-office staff on what to do. California now requires this by law, and districts in other states have adopted it by policy. Will the board put this on the agenda by ___?" The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) page has sample safe-zone policy materials.
Ask whether the school collects immigration status or Social Security numbers at enrollment, and who decides on requests from immigration agents. The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) factsheet explains why schools should not collect status data. Parents can also opt out of directory information sharing under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) each year.
Recruit parents who feel safe to walk groups of children to school or the bus stop, as Chicago families did with "walking trains" in 2025. Post a sign-up sheet in a group chat and set fixed routes and times. Give every child an emergency contact card.
Ask local immigrant rights groups whether they run a hotline or trained observer team, and take their training before you respond to any report. Informed Immigrant lists legal and community help and trusted guidance to share with families.
United We Dream runs MigraWatch, a nationwide line where people report ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) activity and get support. Sign up on its page to volunteer, and save the hotline number in your phone to share with families at your school.
Watch ILRC's free August 2025 Immigration Know Your Rights and Advocate Training and use its toolkit. Partner with a legal aid group so a qualified person leads the session at your school, library or place of worship.
Look up your state lawmakers and ask whether they will sponsor or support a bill like California's AB 49, which requires a judicial warrant for agents to enter nonpublic school areas and limits sharing of student records. Give them your ZIP code and name the school your family uses.
Set up a monthly gift to NILC, which litigates and publishes guidance on students' rights. Other options include ILRC and Kids in Need of Defense, which represents children who face immigration court without a parent.
Texas passed a law letting public school districts refuse to enroll children without immigration documents or charge them tuition. Read more ›
Families in Tyler, Texas, sued the school district over the tuition policy in a case that became Plyler v. Doe. Read more ›
In Plyler v. Doe, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Texas violated the Equal Protection Clause. All children have a right to free public K-12 education regardless of immigration status. Read more ›
ICE issued a memo limiting enforcement at sensitive locations, including schools, without headquarters approval. Read more ›
DHS replaced earlier guidance with a "protected areas" memo covering schools, hospitals, places of worship and other sites. Read more ›
Acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman rescinded the protected areas policy and left enforcement decisions near schools to field officers. Read more ›
A federal judge denied Denver Public Schools' request to restore the 2021 policy. The district dropped its lawsuit in June 2025. Read more ›
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 49, which bars schools from letting immigration agents into nonpublic areas without a judicial warrant, judicial subpoena or court order. Read more ›
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed HB 1312, which requires schools to post guidance on immigration agents and notify campus communities of enforcement. The Justice Department sued over other parts of the law later that month. Read more ›
ICE detained 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, as they returned home from school. Read more ›
Judge Laura Provinzino denied a request by the Fridley and Duluth school districts in Minnesota and the union Education Minnesota to limit ICE activity near schools. Read more ›
Danbury, Connecticut, Mayor Roberto Alves said agents detained close to 50 people over three days as school began, and an advocate said agents took four parents at a bus stop. Read more ›
A picture book about Sylvia Mendez, whose family sued after a California school district sent her to a separate school for Mexican American children. A federal appeals court ruled for the families in Mendez v. Westminster in 1947, seven years before Brown v. Board of Education.
From our Banned Books Book Club list: Talk to Kids About Race
A legal scholar traces how lawyers argued Plyler and how the court decided it. He also covers later efforts to limit it.
A sociologist followed undocumented young people in Los Angeles for more than a decade. He shows how legal status shapes life after K-12 school ends.
The author, who came to the US as a young child, profiles undocumented workers and families across the country. It was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award.
A Pulitzer-winning journalist describes arriving at age 12 and learning at 16 that he was undocumented. He writes about hiding his status through school and work.
Luiselli structures the book around the intake questionnaire she translated for children facing immigration court. Each question opens a child's story.
An NBC News correspondent reports on the 2018 family separation policy at the border. He documents how the government lost track of children.
A poet recounts growing up undocumented in California and his father's deportation. He writes about the fear of enforcement in a family's daily life.
Shop the Banned Books Book Club. Every book above links to our Banned Books Book Club shop on Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores. Related lists:
A recorded August 2025 webinar with a toolkit, in English and Spanish. It covers rights during ICE encounters and how to lead a Know Your Rights presentation.
An online guide for educators covering students' legal rights, enforcement concerns, mental health and district case studies. It includes a printable one-page flyer.
The AFT hub includes an educator's guide to enforcement actions, Know Your Rights materials in several languages and safe-zone policy guidance.
A printable guide with Know Your Rights cards in English and Spanish, 15 steps educators can take and a family emergency plan.
A step-by-step guide covering documents, guardianship, finances, preparing children emotionally and locating detained relatives.
Supreme Court justice from 1956 to 1990. He wrote the 5-4 majority opinion in Plyler v. Doe.
Federal district judge in the Eastern District of Texas from 1968 until his death in 2009. He first ruled for the children in the Tyler, Texas, case that became Plyler v. Doe.
A Pulitzer-winning journalist who disclosed his undocumented status in The New York Times Magazine in 2011. He founded Define American, which works on how media covers immigrants.
An Ecuadorian American writer and author of The Undocumented Americans. The National Book Foundation called her the first undocumented writer to be a National Book Award finalist.
A journalist, anchor of Latino USA and founder of Futuro Media. She won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the podcast Suave.
A Stanford education professor. His 2025 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found student absences in five Central Valley counties rose about 22 percent after immigration raids.
A University of California, Santa Barbara professor who studies immigrant students. Her April 2026 Brookings analysis summarized research on how enforcement affects schools.
President of the National Parents Union, which says it represents parent groups in all 50 states. In 2026 she described ICE as being "literally at the school yard gate."
A first-person essay by a former unaccompanied minor from El Salvador on working full time through high school and facing immigration court without a guaranteed lawyer.
Covers 2020 ICE raids in sanctuary cities and how neighbors can help, including United We Dream's deportation defense toolkits and MigraWatch hotline.
A weekly public radio show and podcast from Futuro Media on Latino life and news. Its archive includes reporting on immigration enforcement and families.
A political podcast distributed by PRX. It covers immigration policy and deportation from the perspective of affected communities.
NPR’s 2021-2026 show on how race affects every part of society, from politics and history to pop culture.
A podcast about public education policy and politics. It is useful for understanding how school boards and districts make decisions.
Since January 2025, no federal policy stops immigration agents from acting at or near schools (NAFSA). An administrative warrant does not authorize entry into nonpublic areas, and schools can require a judicial warrant before letting agents past the front office (NILC). California requires this by state law (F3 Law). Families with a specific concern should contact a legal aid group through the National Immigration Legal Services Directory.
FERPA generally bars schools from sharing education records without parent consent. Exceptions include a court order or lawfully issued subpoena, and schools usually must notify parents first (My School My Rights). Parents can opt out of the release of directory information, such as home addresses, by telling the school in writing (My School My Rights).
A judge signs a judicial warrant, and it names a court. An immigration officer signs an ICE administrative warrant, such as Form I-200 or I-205 (FactCheck.org). NILC notes that an administrative warrant alone does not allow officers to enter private spaces without consent (NILC).
ICE has legal authority to make arrests, and a federal judge in Minnesota found in May 2026 that the 2025 policy change did not alter that authority (Sahan Journal). DHS says it is not going to schools to arrest children (Click2Houston). Research shows arrests near schools reduce attendance for many students, including US citizens (Brookings). Advocates are asking schools and states to set rules about access to campuses and records, which they have the power to do (Stateline).
Push your school board for a written safe-zone policy and ask how front-office staff are trained. Offer rides or join a walking group. Give to legal defense groups, since people in immigration court, including children, have no right to a government-appointed lawyer (American Immigration Lawyers Association).
That decision belongs to each family, and a lawyer or trusted local group can help them weigh their situation. Families can ask their district about virtual learning options and should have a preparedness plan and a backup caregiver on file with the school.
Every claim in this guide is cited inline. Here are all 29 sources in one place.
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