As educators, you understand that meaningful learning only happens when students feel safe, supported, and understood. Yet across the country, recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids — often backed by the National Guard and military forces — are putting that foundational safety at risk.
These actions go far beyond immigration enforcement. They’re tearing families apart, disrupting classrooms, and profoundly impacting the emotional and academic well-being of children. Students who witness loved ones taken without warning often return to school overwhelmed, anxious, or withdrawn. For many, school is the only place they can count on for consistency and care, making trauma-informed teaching more critical than ever.
The ripple effects of these raids extend beyond major cities and border towns. Communities across the country — rural or urban, large or small — are feeling the impact. No school is immune to the fear and stress these events generate.
At Changing Perspectives, we stand in solidarity with families who experience discrimination and have their lives disrupted.
Every child deserves to feel safe at school, regardless of immigration status. Continue reading to learn more about the ripple effect these raids have on education, and how we can collectively support and protect our students and their families.
The Negative Impact on Students
Immigration raids can have wide-ranging and profoundly negative effects on students, regardless of their immigration status. Understandably, children who witnessed loved ones and classmates taken away without warning were left overwhelmed, struggling to make sense of what they had seen. For some, it triggered anxiety, panic attacks, or withdrawal. Significant ways these raids impact students include:
Emotional and Psychological Distress
- Anxiety and fear: Students may constantly worry about the possible detention or deportation of a family member or themselves. Widespread fear in immigrant communities has led many students, including citizens, to skip school out of concern for family separation. In California’s Central Valley, for example, one report notes that many parents kept children at home following Border Patrol operations, disrupting their education.
- Trauma: Witnessing or hearing about raids can cause long-term trauma, especially if they see a parent or loved one taken away.
- Depression and PTSD: These conditions are not uncommon in students affected by immigration enforcement.
Academic Decline
- Loss of focus: Stress from raids can interfere with a student’s ability to concentrate or participate in class.
- Declining grades: Persistent emotional distress can lead to lower academic performance.
- Increased absenteeism: Students may miss school due to concerns of a raid, or the responsibility of taking care of younger siblings if their parents have been detained.
Family Disruption
- Separation from caregivers: Raids can result in sudden family separations, leaving students without stable guardianship.
- Financial hardship: If a breadwinning parent is detained or deported, students may face economic insecurity and housing instability.
Social Withdrawal
- Isolation: A fear of being stigmatized or targeted can cause students to withdraw from their peers and school activities.
- Distrust in institutions: Students may begin to distrust teachers, counselors, and other authority figures if they fear these adults could report them or their families.
Health and Well-being
- Physical symptoms: Stress-related health problems like headaches, stomachaches, and sleep disorders are common.
- Avoidance of medical care: Families may avoid seeking healthcare, even for children, for fear of drawing attention to their immigration status.
Legal Confusion and Burden
- Navigating complex systems: Older students may be required to assume adult responsibilities, such as interacting with lawyers or government agencies.
- Guardianship concerns: Younger children may suddenly need new guardians, which can be confusing and destabilizing.
- In 2018, Stanford researchers estimated that over 320,000 Hispanic students were displaced due to local ICE partnerships, adversely affecting learning, especially for children who moved mid-year.
These impacts do not benefit the individual students affected and also add strain to an already overwhelmed school system.
Heightened Trauma Among Students with Disabilities
For children with disabilities, especially those who rely on stability and routine, the disruption was even more profound. The absence of a caregiver or classmate wasn’t just emotional — it disrupted learning plans, therapy schedules, and behavioral supports. In some cases, trusted paraprofessionals or aides were among those detained, leaving students without the critical assistance they needed. Many of these students already struggle with social-emotional challenges and learning barriers, which can heighten their separation anxiety and stress when immigration enforcement targets their families.
Strategies to Support Students Who Receive Special Education Services
Supporting students who receive special education services during immigration raids requires proactive, trauma-informed strategies. Educators should create individualized safety and emotional support plans that align with each student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan. Strategies may involve providing access to a trusted adult, creating designated calm spaces, and maintaining consistent routines that offer predictability and stability.
Visual schedules, social stories, and communication aids can help students process unexpected changes. Above all, maintaining strong home-school communication and collaborating with families ensures students receive the reassurance and accommodations they need to feel secure and continue learning. Schools and advocates highlight several supports:
Preventive & Responsive Actions
- Flexible learning options (e.g., virtual instruction) help maintain education continuity when students miss class due to fear.
- “Safe zones”: designating school facilities (including buses) as warrant-required zones to discourage enforcement inside.
- Legal education: schools offering resources so families can assert their legal protections under rights frameworks like FERPA.
Emotional & Academic Reinforcements
- Counseling and mental health supports are crucial for students grappling with trauma.
- IEP flexibility: adapting educational plans to cope with interruptions and elevated anxiety.
- Inclusion and equity: ensuring special-education students are not further marginalized amidst stress, and addressing existing disparities in service quality.
Changing Perspectives Offers Educators and Communities Support
These raids don’t just remove people, they unravel trust. Trust in schools as safe havens. Trust in educators and caregivers to protect. And trust that families would be there at the end of the day. As educators and advocates, the responsibility now falls on us to help restore that trust, create trauma-informed spaces, and push for policies that safeguard, not destabilize, our most vulnerable students.
At Changing Perspectives, we support every member of the educational community in fostering social-emotional learning and creating inclusive, equitable learning environments where all students can thrive. Our comprehensive approach includes five key areas of support: curriculum resources, family workshops, professional development training, site visits, and virtual coaching.
Explore our user-friendly resources and lesson plans. Let us know how we can support you!
