As New York City braces for the new presidential administration's stance on immigration policy, city schools and the Department of Education are reinforcing their stance on protecting immigrant students. A memo to the city's school bus crews, obtained by Advance/SILive.com, highlights plans to introduce a system for bus staff in case they encounter Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. Training sessions will be mandatory, and staff will be given a 1-pager pdf, or palm card, outlining the protocol to follow during such encounters.
The initiative is a reflection of concerns that escalated with President-elect Donald Trump's proposal to deport millions. Although exact plans relating to school-aged children who are living in the U.S. without permanent legal status are still unclear, The Migration Policy Institute numbers these children at over 733,000. Amidst this uncertainty, the Department of Education remains "committed to protecting the right of every student to attend public school, regardless of immigration status, national origin, or religion," explained Nicole Brownstein, the Department of Education’s first deputy press secretary, in a statement to Advance/SILive.com.
This commitment coincides with reminders that were distributed to principals about students' right to education and the protocol to follow if approached by non-local law enforcement such as ICE. “Our schools are safe harbors for our children and nothing has changed in terms of how we operate — we do not permit non-NYC law enforcement agents, including those from ICE, to enter schools except when absolutely required by law — and we do not ask families to disclose, nor do we track, immigration status," Brownstein conveyed, according to The New York Times.
Principals across the city have also been instructed on how to manage potential encounters with ICE agents. Should these agents turn up, they are to call a lawyer for the school system and ask the agents to wait outside, according to an email obtained by The New York Times from Emma Vadehra, deputy chancellor for operations and finance/chief operating officer to New York City public school principals. P.S. 51 principal Stephanie Lukas considers this directive a continuation of the existing practice, aimed at maintaining schools as safe spaces amid the looming threat of increased deportations.
Maintaining these protective measures is necessary not just for individual students, but for the viability of the school system itself. "They are the only reason why we have stable and slightly increased enrollments," said Naveed Hasan, a Panel for Education Policy member who is drafting a resolution to affirm existing policies related to federal immigration enforcement requests, emphasizing the role immigrant children play in keeping school attendance numbers up, as reported by The New York Times.
As measures continue to be put in place, Luke's school, P.S. 51, has already seen a surge in enrollment since the coronavirus pandemic, attributed to new arrivals, indicating both a growing need for and a demonstration of the city’s commitment to sheltering and educating its immigrant population.
