Overview
- Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members voted unanimously to expand bus eligibility to students living less than two miles from their schools, easing the prior parent-responsibility zone.
- Superintendent Roderick Richmond must deliver an emergency transportation plan and budget within 30 days, with total costs and bus needs still unspecified.
- Teachers and principals report withdrawals and elevated absences among Hispanic students as families fear encounters with immigration authorities when traveling to and from school.
- District leaders say there have been no reports of ICE activity on school campuses and full October attendance figures have not yet been released.
- The recent surge has brought ICE and the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis to target violent crime, though preliminary local reporting indicates many arrests have been nonviolent or immigration-related.