Immigrant student enrollment is dwindling at schools across the US

Schools across the United States, from Miami to San Diego, are seeing steep declines in enrollment of students from immigrant families.

In some cases parents were deported or voluntarily they returned to their own countryHe was fired over President Donald Trump’s sweeping policy immigration pressure. Others moved to other locations within the United States

The biggest factor in many school systems is that fewer families are coming from other countries. As fewer people cross the U.S. border, administrators in both small towns and big cities report fewer people newly arrived students than ever before.

In Miami-Dade County Public Schools, about 2,550 students from another state have entered the district so far this school year; This number was approximately 14,000 last year and more than 20,000 the year before that. School board member Luisa Santos, who herself attended district schools as a young immigrant, said the trend is a “sad reality.”

“I was one of those who came when I was 8 years old,” Santos said. “And this country and our public schools — I will never get tired of saying this — have given me everything.”

Miami-Dade’s enrollment declines collectively wiped nearly $70 million from the district’s annual budget, leaving administrators scrambling to cover the unexpected shortfall.

The decline in the number of immigrant students increases even more difficulties during registration Many traditional public schools are seeing declines in overall numbers due to demographic changes and students opting for alternatives such as private schooling and homeschooling. Despite the need for English language instruction and social supports, newcomers to some districts have helped increase enrollment and provide critical per-student funding in recent years.

In north Alabama, Albertville City Schools Superintendent Bart Reeves has seen the local economy grow along with the Hispanic population attracted by the area’s poultry processing plants for decades. Albertville will soon open its first Target store, a sign of the community’s growing prosperity.

The Reeves district is home to one of Alabama’s largest populations of Hispanic students, nearly 60% of whom identify as Hispanic. But the district’s incoming academy at a local high school is not accepting new students, Reeves said.

“That’s not going to happen with the border closure this year,” said Reeves, who expects the hit to his budget from enrollment declines to cost him about 12 teaching positions.

Some students deport themselves with their families

On a Sunday morning in August, Edna, a 63-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, received the call she had been dreading. Her friend, a mother of seven young children from Guatemala, was detained on immigration charges in Lake Worth, Florida, while she was on her way to pick up something for her children’s breakfast.

The family had prepared for this moment. There were legal documents granting temporary custody of the children to Edna, who asked to be identified only by her first name because she feared immigration enforcement.

“I’ll be here and everything will be okay,” she recalled telling her oldest child, a 12-year-old boy.

In the weeks that followed, Edna stayed home with her two younger children and took her five older siblings on the bus each day to Palm Beach County public schools; enrollment here has fallen by more than 6,000 this year. One day in September, all seven children boarded a plane to Guatemala to reunite with their mother, leaving behind their neighborhood friends, group studies, and the only life they had ever known.

“My house is like a garden without flowers,” said Edna. “They’re all gone.”

The family currently lives in a rural part of Guatemala, far from phone service. Edna said that school there has already started this year, and her mother, who herself did not go to school in her childhood, is keeping them at home and deciding whether to enroll them next year.

Schools accustomed to newcomers are seeing far fewer of them this year

Declines in numbers Immigrants to the USA It was already evident in school enrollment numbers this summer.

Denver Public Schools enrolled 400 newly arrived students this summer, compared to 1,500 last summer. Outside Chicago, Waukegan Community Unified School District 60 enrolled 100 fewer new immigrant students. Administrators at the Houston Independent School District closed Las Americas Newcomer School, a program for children new to the United States, after enrollment dropped from 111 to just 21 last year.

This change is also seen in places outside of Boston, such as Chelsea, Massachusetts, which has long been a destination for new immigrants. The 6,000-student Chelsea Public Schools system has attracted Central Americans seeking affordable housing, and more recently the state has housed newly arrived Haitians in shelters there. The usual influx of new arrivals did not occur this year.

“This year was different. Much calmer,” said Daniel Mojica, director of Chelsea’s parent information center.

Over the summer, 152 newcomers were enrolled in Chelsea Public Schools, compared to 592 new arrivals last summer.

Some people take it and leave. Since January, 844 students have withdrawn from the district, compared to 805 students during the same period last year. Mojica said the majority of students who left — about a quarter — returned to their home countries.

He attributes this in part to the presence of masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers roaming the city’s streets.

“You can feel the fear in the air,” he said.

Educators worry students are missing out

In San Diego, Principal Fernando Hernandez has enrolled dozens of incoming students from across Latin America in the past few years. Many made a treacherous journey through the forests Darien Gap before setting up camp in a park near the Perkins K-8 school.

Approximately one-third of the students at the school are homeless. Staff specialize in supporting children facing difficulties. As the number of newcomers grew, Hernandez watched Mexican American students change playground slang to be better understood by their new classmates from Venezuela, Colombia and Peru.

But so far this school year, it hasn’t enrolled a single new student. Other families did not return when the new school year began.

Hernandez fears the cost of the disruption will extend far beyond students’ academic progress. He worries that students are missing the chance to learn to empathize, share, disagree and understand each other.

“This is like a repeat of the epidemic where kids are isolated, locked up and not socializing,” he said.

“These kids need to be in school,” he added.

Parent Natacha, who moved to California with her family after leaving Venezuela, said she tried to avoid going out in public but continued to send her daughters to school. Natacha, who asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of immigration enforcement, said she braces herself every afternoon as she drives the girls home, scanning the road behind her in case another car follows her.

“I entrust myself to God,” he said.

___

The Associated Press’s education coverage receives funding from several private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards to work with philanthropists list Number of supporters and funded coverage on AP.org.