Apodaca: How will immigration raids impact kids and schools?

Los Angeles Times

06-08-2025

School is starting Monday at Santa Ana Unified School District.
I'm sure that in most respects it will be the same as in times past. First-day jitters. Reconnecting with classmates. Meeting new teachers. Discovering what's in store for the upcoming year.
But will there be one significant difference this time around?
Will some of those classmates be missing — not because they're sick or because they've switched schools, but because their families are scared that they will be targeted by and become separated because of the immigration raids occurring in and around their community?
This is not — forgive the pun — merely an academic question. It's a real-world problem that isn't getting as much attention amid the widespread coverage of intensified immigration enforcement.
Yet the consequences for districts like Santa Ana Unified that have large numbers of immigrant families — and for their students — could be profound.
Indeed, evidence is accumulating that the immigration crackdown is significantly impacting school-age kids. For instance, a study released in June by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research found a 22% increase in student absences in January and February, compared to the same period a year earlier, in California's Central Valley, a region with a large immigrant population.
Researchers and other observers indicated that, in addition to learning losses due to less instruction time, these absences have other serious implications, including broader developmental harm, a loss of other critical school-based services, and greater levels of anxiety and depression. The absences could also impact more than just the missing students by creating a more stressful environment for teachers struggling to keep lesson plans on track, and a disruptive learning environment for other students from non-immigrant families.
That's the last thing our hard-pressed schools need right now. Public schools throughout Orange County and the state are already grappling with many other intractable issues, including lingering pandemic-era learning losses and mental health concerns, higher levels of chronic absenteeism, declining enrollment, and the end of federal COVID relief funds.
Santa Ana Unified is one of the districts that have been hit hard by decreasing enrollment. After peaking at 63,610 in the early 2000s, its student population has ramped steadily downward, to just over 36,000 in the last school year.
Further declines are expected, largely due to demographic changes. In California, funding for most school districts is tied to average daily attendance, so those declines could lead to more financial woes in a district like Santa Ana Unified, which has already been dealing with a budget shortfall and layoffs.
Now the potential for a spike in absenteeism because of the immigration raids must feel like a piling on to these problems.
At its meeting last month Santa Ana Unified's board of education adopted a resolution affirming support for immigrant families.
It stated that the 'recent immigration enforcement actions have caused fear, trauma, and disruption among SAUSD students and families, including those with undocumented or mixed-status backgrounds,' and that it was 'committed to providing all students with access to a safe, inclusive and welcoming educational environment.'
The resolution further said the immigration crackdown can erode trust, discourage student attendance and compromise public safety. Therefore, it stated, the district was committed to providing a 'safe zone' for students and their families, and that no ICE agents or other immigration enforcement personnel would be allowed on school property 'without valid, properly reviewed documentation and legal authority.'
In an emailed response to my questions, Santa Ana Unified spokesperson Josie Amador said there was no noticeable impact on attendance at the end of the last school year, but when immigration enforcement kicked up during the district's summer session some students stopped coming.
Parents have been expressing concerns, but it's too early to tell how the 2025-26 school year will be affected, she stated. So far, the confirmations of planned attendance are holding up, but the district is closely monitoring the situation and stands ready to provide resources and options to families as needed.
'When students are not in school, they miss access to not only crucial learning but also to critical support,' she wrote. 'Many students are already dealing with trauma. Every SAUSD school has counselors ready to help, and our support services teams are trained to respond.'
'Our approach is guided by a simple but powerful belief: Every student and every family should feel safe and supported in our schools.'
As Amador stated, it's too soon to tell what will happen with attendance this school year, even with the district's clear commitment to do what it can to help. As the immigration crackdown escalates, so too do worries about the impact.
It seems crazy to suggest that kids might stay home because Mom or Dad might be taken away while they're at school, yet this is a real possibility. And even if the students do attend school as usual, will they even be able to concentrate on learning when they feel the constant strain of knowing their families are at risk?
So I offer my approach, also guided by a simple but powerful belief: If children are hurt by governmental actions, it's unequivocal evidence that the policy is misguided and needs to change. Kids are innocent actors in all this. That's something that bears remembering.