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How rumored and real ICE activity has impacted local schools

Superintendent of Waltham Public Schools Marisa Mendonsa. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Jesse Costa
Superintendent of Waltham Public Schools Marisa Mendonsa. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

On a May morning, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents broke through a van window in downtown Waltham in order to arrest two men inside. By mid-day, the city’s school superintendent, Marisa Mendonsa, started getting calls from teachers.

They “had students coming to say that they had videotaped [the arrest], or they were there, they had seen it,” she recalled in a recent interview.

Mendonsa knew students seeing ICE agents shatter a van window to forcefully remove passengers had to be traumatic. But she wasn’t sure exactly how she should respond to the school community’s worries. It was a concern that came up several times during the spring term. What would be helpful? What could and couldn’t she promise families?

She knew she had to let families know that school buildings would be a safe environment for kids who were struggling emotionally from witnessing an arrest or having a family member get deported. But at the same time, she had to consider and respect the community members who were in favor of the immigration crackdown. She settled on sending emails that put student needs first.

Mendonsa reminded the school community of the district’s commitment to serve all children in the district and its requirement to allow ICE agents inside the building if they have a judicial warrant to arrest someone inside.

She also sent a letter to the Boston ICE office requesting the agency adjust the way its agents search for and apprehend people.

“I can’t tell them to stop doing their job,” Mendonsa recalled thinking. “But I could ask you to reconsider your approach, and your tactics and when you’re doing this, so that it’s not happening when kids are commuting to class or near a school building.” She said she did not receive a response from the agency.

While the state has provided resources to families on their rights if ICE agents appear at their doorstep, Mendonsa wishes she knew more strategies to help students who might be traumatized from witnessing arrests or who are in constant fear that a family member might not be home when school lets out.

For school leaders like Mendonsa, the ramp up in immigration enforcement during the Trump administration has created many challenges. It’s been an extra responsibility to provide emotional support to students and families impacted. A number of district heads in Massachusetts reported periodic dips in attendance as rumors of ICE activity swirled. And in the background, superintendents are worried that if fewer students enroll next year, school funding will get cut.

In Chelsea, superintendent Almudena Abeyta said you could tell when rumors of an ICE raid, or arrests, were happening through attendance numbers.

“It’s pretty obvious when there’s an incident happening in the community. Your data drops,” said Abeyta.

Chelsea was the site of several ICE raids this spring, including an incident at a local Market Basket and a violent Mother’s Day arrest.

Typically attendance in Chelsea schools is around 88%, according to Abeyta. But on days when ICE activity was reported or rumored nearby, attendance dropped to about 86% — which translates to around 120 students absent.

“For a small district like Chelsea, a 2% drop in attendance is pretty significant,” explained Abeyta, who added that even when contagious illnesses like the flu or a stomach virus spread around a school, attendance only falls by 1%.

But Abeyta added that she’s been relieved to see that attendance, for the most part, stayed steady in the past year. She attributes that to the level of trust the community has with the school system.

“Over the years we’ve worked on engaging our families in genuine and authentic ways.” she said. “And kids really want to be here.”

But the occasional dips in attendance worry some other school district leaders.

Framingham Superintendent Bob Tremblay remembers being shocked by the impact on attendance following a rumor in late January that ICE agents were nearby. Framingham is home to at least 6,000 Brazilian immigrants, one of the largest Brazilian communities in the U.S.

“We have just over 9,000 students that attend school every day in Framingham — and we had about 2,500 students not show up that day,” Tremblay said.

Tremblay said he often gets frustrated when rumors of ICE activity circulate on social media and parent group chats.

“Chronic absenteeism is real,” he said. “Families electing to keep their kids at home out of fear is disadvantaging their own child of an education.”

Tremblay added that if a child is not coming to school, it puts the school in a tough position. It can become a legal matter when a child misses more than eighteen school days per year.

He added that fewer parents attended extracurricular activities, student award nights and other school events than last year.

In this file photo, students walk between classes Chelsea High School. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
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In this file photo, students walk between classes Chelsea High School. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Officials in Salem worry how school enrollment will take a hit in this political environment. School superintendent Stephen Zrike says fewer international families have enrolled in the district this spring and summer. Officials in Waltham, Framingham and Chelsea told WBUR about similar patterns. Because school district funding is determined, in part, by the number of students who attend, a drop in enrollment can cause budgetary issues down the road.

“That does concern us because we’re a city that counts on our schools filled every year by the wave of newcomers,” said Stephen Zrike, the superintendent of Salem Public Schools. A number of immigrants from Haiti and El Salvador have recently settled in the city.

Zrike is hopeful that if enrollment does not pick up over the summer, state officials will find a way to soften the blow of an enrollment drop in budget allocations the following school year.

So far, there are no clear answers from the state about such policy questions and whether a district’s state accountability grade will be impacted by student absences that spike after ICE rumors spread. But Zrike said the state overall has been helpful in providing ample legal and procedural advice.

School officials are instructed to call their central office if ICE agents show up at a school building. And district leaders should be taking steps to protect student data and personal information from agencies outside of the public school system, according to the attorney general’s office.

Officials in Gov. Maura Healey’s administration have acknowledged the challenges school leaders have been facing. In an April meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said his office is working closely with the state attorney general’s office and Office for Refugees and Immigrants to make sure school leaders have the most up to date information about state and federal policy and the rights of individual families.

“We continue to push back against harmful federal funding cuts and policy changes that threaten the stability of our local school districts and well-being of our students and educators,” Tutwiler said at that meeting. “We’ll stay true to our department’s educational vision in making sure that all students feel known, valued, and having the support they need to succeed.”

“This is very uncharted territory here,” Zrike added, “and so I think it’s been reassuring that there’s a commitment to protecting our youth.”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2025 WBUR

Carrie began reporting from New Mexico in 2011, following environmental news, education and Native American issues. She’s worked with NPR’s Morning Edition, PRI’s The World, National Native News, and The Takeaway.
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