{"id":253617,"date":"2025-09-25T12:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T12:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/253617\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T12:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T12:47:10","slug":"how-la-unified-is-trying-to-protect-immigrant-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/253617\/","title":{"rendered":"How LA Unified is trying to protect immigrant families"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carolyn Jones<\/a>, CalMatters<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\""Close-up\"
\n\t\t\t\tMayra Lara, director of Southern California partnerships and engagement for EdTrust-West, in Long Beach on Sept. 15, 2025. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez for CalMatters<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

As the Trump administration has ratcheted up immigration enforcement, school districts across the country have rallied to support students and families without legal status. But perhaps none more so than Los Angeles Unified.<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s second largest school district \u2014 under the guidance of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, himself formerly an immigrant living in the country illegally \u2013 has emerged as a national model for how school districts can help families gripped by fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think L.A. Unified is at the top of the list for folks looking at what schools are doing right now,\u201d said Sophia Rodriguez, associate professor at New York University who\u2019s studied the topic. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing individual teachers and schools push back, but this effort cannot fall on the backs of heroic educators. It has to happen at the district level, like L.A. Unified.\u201d<\/p>\n

L.A. Unified catapulted itself to the forefront of the issue within days of Trump\u2019s election in November. At its first school board meeting after the election, the board unanimously passed a resolution<\/a> vowing to protect students from immigration enforcement on campuses. Since then, the district has rolled out a slew of other services: a 24-hour hotline for families seeking help; a \u201ccompassion fund\u201d to help families facing economic emergencies; free legal assistance through local nonprofits; online and in-person workshops addressing immigrants\u2019 legal rights; and a virtual academy for students who\u2019re afraid to leave the house due to the risk of deportation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Families can get red cards outlining their legal rights in case they\u2019re detained, as well as mental health counseling and medical care at 19 wellness centers located on school campuses. The district also encourages families to create emergency plans in case a parent is detained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those moves are in addition to statewide efforts to keep schools safe. Guidance<\/a> from Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta reminded schools that immigration officers need a judicial warrant before entering a school campus. Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, last week signed a bill that prevents school staff from disclosing information<\/a> about students or their families to immigration authorities without a judicial warrant. He also signed a bill requiring schools to notify families<\/a> and the community when immigration officials are on campus.<\/p>\n

Outspoken superintendent<\/p>\n

These steps are helpful, advocates said, but Carvalho\u2019s outspoken defense of immigrant families might be even more powerful. At a time when some civic leaders are shying away from controversy, Carvalho has repeatedly spoken out and made clear that protecting immigrant students is a priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a proud American by choice \u2014 not by chance \u2014 and as a formerly undocumented immigrant, it is my compelling moral responsibility, as well as professional responsibility, to protect all children,\u201d Carvalho said at a recent panel on immigration. \u201cOn the sidewalks of America, we don’t have some reserved for immigrants and others for everybody else. Everybody walks the same sidewalk of hope and opportunity. \u2026 The day we abandon that we might as well bring down the arm of Lady Liberty, extinguish the flame, and tell everyone, \u2018I’m sorry, America’s democracy is closed.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

An immigrant from Portugal, Carvalho was living illegally in the country for\u00a0 his first few years in the United States in the 1980s. He had moved to the U.S. alone after he graduated from high school, in hopes of escaping poverty and finding more opportunities for education and a career, according to a New York Times profile<\/a>. While living on the East Coast, he struggled with housing and the fear of deportation, but eventually obtained a student visa and went on to become a high school science teacher in Florida and gain citizenship. He served as superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools before taking over at Los Angeles Unified in 2021.<\/p>\n

Carvalho\u2019s words are important, particularly amid the current political climate, said\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mayra Lara, Southern California director of partnerships and engagement at the research and advocacy nonprofit EdTrust West. Lara was once a student living in the country illegally in Los Angeles Unified and later worked as a high school English teacher in the district.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been impressed with what the district has done, but the superintendent has been especially vocal,\u201d Lara said. \u201cHaving a leader who has the courage to speak out makes an incredible difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""A\"Mayra Lara, director of Southern California partnerships and engagement for EdTrust-West, in Long Beach on Sept. 15, 2025. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez for CalMatters<\/p>\n

Students living in the country illegally often feel isolated, afraid to reveal their stories for fear of deportation, she said. Lara felt school, especially English class, was a safe place where she could be herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSchool saved me. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important that schools do what they can to help families right now,\u201d Lara said. \u201cAll school districts should be doing what LAUSD is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Effect on enrollment<\/p>\n

Like all school districts in California, Los Angeles Unified doesn\u2019t ask students about their immigration status. But immigrant rights groups estimate that about 1 in 5 students, or 76,000, in the district come from mixed-status families, meaning that at least one parent lacks legal status.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Enrollment this year has dipped, in part due to the immigration crackdown, Carvalho said. Some families have moved away and some are keeping their children home from school. Attendance has also faltered as raids have increased. That\u2019s led the district to send staff \u2014 including the superintendent \u2014 to visit 2,000 students\u2019 homes and call more than 14,000 families to assure them that their children are safe at school.<\/p>\n

The district has created so-called safe passages to school: volunteers who escort children to and from school for parents who are afraid to leave their homes.<\/p>\n

Still, the district can do more, said Maria Miranda, vice president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union. More outreach to families, so they know what\u2019s available to them, and larger zones around campuses monitored <\/strong>by volunteers, should be a priority, she said. The union would also like to see a stronger alert system to notify parents of nearby immigration enforcement activities, as well as more school staff available to assist students who immigrated to the U.S. alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s great the superintendent supports students and the district deserves credit,\u201d Miranda said, noting that the union has long pushed for these measures. \u201cIt\u2019s been beautiful to see the community come together to protect our democracy. \u2026 It\u2019s not OK for students to go into hiding and therefore not have access to school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018My job is to teach kids\u2019<\/p>\n

Rodriguez, who teaches at NYU\u2019s Steinhardt School, has extensively researched schools and immigration. She\u2019s not surprised Los Angeles Unified has been a leader in supporting students after immigration enforcement spiked in Los Angeles. Public schools in Chicago, where Trump has recently ordered an immigration crackdown, have also taken extra measures to protect families.<\/p>\n

But even school districts in conservative areas have taken steps to protect immigrant students, Rodriguez said. Their superintendents might not be as outspoken, and they might use different terminology and strategies, but the services and commitment to students\u2019 welfare are there, she said.<\/p>\n

Patricia Gandara, an education professor at UCLA, agrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur research has shown that superintendents in red states might be thinking, \u2018I don\u2019t disagree with Trump\u2019s policies, but my job is to teach kids,\u2019\u201d Gandara said. \u201cIn general, superintendents everywhere are far more concerned about their undocumented students than you\u2019d imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Carolyn Jones, CalMatters Mayra Lara, director of Southern California partnerships and engagement for EdTrust-West, in Long Beach…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":253618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,69,407,409,11334,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-253617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-education","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-k-12-education","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115265014807814687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}