A layer of protection for schools is gone

Hello from Erica and Kalyn on Chalkbeat’s national desk. President Donald Trump took office for the second time Monday and almost immediately signed a slew of executive orders seeking to implement the “Day One” promises he made on the campaign trail. We’ve got a look at how those actions might affect schools —?starting with changes to immigration enforcement.

Before you dig in, we need to make a correction to last week’s newsletter. The new research on the lack of evidence for inclusion in special education was conducted by Douglas Fuchs of Vanderbilt University and the American Institutes for Research. Not David Fuchs. We sincerely regret the error.

The big story

Since taking office on Monday, Trump has taken several high-profile executive actions on immigration. One that happened out of the spotlight on Monday evening has big implications for schools.

The new administration’s Department of Homeland Security ended a longstanding policy that said immigration arrests and other enforcement activities should not take place at or near “sensitive” or “protected” locations, which include schools, child care centers, churches, hospitals, and other sites for essential services, except in certain emergency cases.

The change marks a major departure in national policy: Immigration agents were given this instruction going back to at least the early 1990s, under both Democratic and Republican administrations. The latest version of the policy, issued in 2021, included not just schools but also places where children gather, such as playgrounds and after-school programs.?

Advocates for immigrant children worry undocumented parents will be more fearful of taking their children to school, and that a rise in absenteeism could be on the horizon.

The change was widely expected and schools had already been preparing. School leaders in the Denver area, for example, recently shared protocols with families, letting them know that if an immigration agent comes to campus they’ll be asked for a warrant and told to wait outside the school or in a front office. If it’s a valid judicial warrant, one charter operator said it planned to clear the school hallways and keep kids in their classrooms until the agents left. “We will not encourage mixed status families or undocumented relatives to come to the school or otherwise interfere,” the plan says.

Elsewhere, like across Texas, schools were taking a “wait and see” approach to avoid causing fear and confusion among families, especially those who live near the U.S.-Mexico border.

In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams, who’s adopted a warm posture toward Trump in recent weeks, refrained from taking a clear stance on the sensitive locations policy. He said his administration was having “good conversations” with federal immigration officials and would continue to do so. “Our team know[s] how important it is to coordinate, and if you’re not at the table, you’re not able to give real good input,” Adams told reporters on Tuesday.

It’s likely there will be legal clashes over how much authority schools have to block immigration officials from coming near or on their campuses. But in the meantime, advocates for immigrant rights are working to make sure schools and families know what their rights still are, which laws may offer other protections, and how schools can support undocumented and mixed-status families.?

Read the full story about the end of the sensitive locations policy here.

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More national stories

Donald Trump pledged to use his executive authority to reshape the federal government as he took office this week. He signed executive orders on Monday targeting transgender rights; ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; stepping up immigration enforcement; and even seeking to end birthright citizenship, a right enshrined in the Constitution and more than a century of case law. These orders are sure to have an impact on schools, but they will also be heavily contested. States and advocacy groups have already filed lawsuits seeking to block some of them.

We asked teachers what they want Trump to know about their students and their communities, and they had a lot to say. We heard from more than 150 educators across the political spectrum. Some are fearful. Others are eager to see what changes the next president will bring. Many told us the campaign rhetoric was hurtful and inaccurate. “In my school, in my district, we’re not out trying to reculture kids,” one junior high principal said. “We don’t have a cultural message; we’re trying to take care of every one of our students.”

Former Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn has been named to serve as Trump’s deputy education secretary. During her time in Tennessee, Schwinn oversaw a literacy overhaul and pandemic recovery efforts. She also ran afoul of cultural conservatives, as well as lawmakers who thought she didn’t consult them enough on major initiatives. Deputy and assistant secretaries can play a major role in setting policy at federal agencies.

Local stories to watch

• Mediation in the legal battle to fix New Jersey’s segregated schools could wrap up soon, concluding over a year of private talks about possible remedies. If the mediation for the historic case yields an agreement, fundamental changes to the state’s education system could be on the way. But if there is no deal, years of legal proceedings, and a delay in any widespread desegregation, could be ahead.
• New York’s governor wants to give schools $13.5 million to roll out a statewide cellphone ban. If state lawmakers approve the budget request, schools could use the money to pay for costs like buying digital pouches that lock devices or paying added staff to collect phones each day. The state ban would require students to disconnect from their devices during class, lunch, and in the hallways, though there would be exceptions for students with disabilities and kids who need devices for medical or translation reasons.
• Philadelphia saw a small boost in elementary math proficiency rates as the district continues to overhaul its math instruction. Students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds improved, though persistent disparities remained. Still, district officials are hopeful the progress will continue now that they’ve weathered the “growing pains” of a new curriculum and intensive tutoring is set to begin in more schools.
• A bitterly divided Memphis-Shelby County Schools board has fired the district’s superintendent after just nine months. Marie Feagins, who was hired after a prolonged and problem-plagued search process, lost her job due to allegations of professional misconduct and poor leadership — which she vehemently denied. What happens next is unclear: The district may owe Feagins nearly half a million dollars in severance, while Tennessee lawmakers have floated trying to give the state power to appoint a majority of the district’s board members.

Did you know?

56%

That’s the percentage of U.S. high school students who say their teachers frequently express the idea that the country has made a lot of progress toward racial equality. A little more than a third of students said they frequently hear their teachers say America is a fundamentally racist nation.

These numbers come from a May 2024 survey of a representative sample of 850 high school students published this week in Education Next. Researchers wanted to understand how often certain ideas, particularly ideas casting America in a negative light or racial divisions as more entrenched, come up in American classrooms. Now, whether you think these ideas are leftist claptrap or simply the truth — and whether a third is a lot or a little —?likely depends on your own political views. Regardless, the survey presents a relatively detailed and nuanced view of what students are hearing in school.?

Large majorities of students said their teachers didn’t make them uncomfortable if they expressed a different view point.

Also of note: Only 17% of students said their teachers were very influential in shaping their political views —?and 23% said teachers weren’t influential at all.

Quote of the week

“I remember one teacher telling me, ‘You do know migraines won’t stop you from failing.’”

That was Bryan Campbell, a junior at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, writing about how painful chronic migraines affected his mental health and motivation at school. As his grades and attendance slipped, teachers pulled him aside to check in. But sometimes their comments were more accusatory than supportive, and their disappointment made the experience even worse for Campbell.

What changed things for Campbell was when his chemistry teacher asked him to step into the hallway and expressed genuine concern about what was going on. The teacher connected Campbell to other students who could relate and helped him create a plan to catch up, including documenting his illness for the school’s records.