Overview
- Surveying 606 high school principals, UCLA and UC Riverside researchers found 70% reported student fear, 64% saw attendance declines, 36% reported bullying, and 78% created plans for potential visits by federal agents.
- Los Angeles Unified reported more than 16,000 fewer students to start the school year, and a Charlotte operation coincided with roughly 30,000 absences in a single day.
- Preliminary data in Chicago and Washington, D.C., show attendance broadly in line with last year, indicating effects that are significant yet localized rather than uniform nationwide.
- Districts are deploying mitigation measures such as remote learning options, contingency plans for parent deportations, added supervision at bus and train stations, and direct home-to-school transportation in some cases.
- Independent findings cite short-term spikes in absences during enforcement actions, including a 22% rise in parts of California in prior operations, with longer-term academic and economic impacts still being studied.