An air of anxiety is hanging over many of the region’s schools as students and educators brace for deportations and the potential presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Federal guidance issued during President Donald Trump’s first week in office last month rescinded previous guidelines that prevented immigration enforcement actions from occurring in or near “sensitive areas,” including schools, hospitals and places of worship.
Pittsburgh Public Schools serves nearly 1,800 English language learners, who make up almost 10% of the total student population, according to 2024-2025 enrollment figures.
“We owe it to our students and their families to be proactive and not reactive,” Allderdice English language development teacher Jessica Porter told Pittsburgh school board members last month.
“Their families are scared. Some are too scared to go to work or come to school.”
Districts like PPS are now working to manage those fears by reminding families and staff of the many federal and local protections for immigrant students that remain in place.
City school board members, for instance, unanimously passed a resolution in 2017 barring ICE agents from entering PPS buildings without clearance from the district’s legal department and superintendent.
District solicitor Ira Weiss said the 2017 policy remains in effect, as do federal laws protecting undocumented children’s right to public education and privacy.
“We have advised school districts that an ICE enforcement officer has no greater right to enter a school than anyone else, absent a court order or other legal process,” Weiss told WESA.
What protections are immigrant students entitled to?
Pennsylvania schools must enroll all students regardless of immigration status, and schools are prohibited from discriminating against students based on their country of national origin. State law also bars schools from inquiring about a child’s immigration status in the enrollment process.
“While the district might have knowledge of the student or family's immigration status, that is not information that should be in the custody or care of the district to maintain,” attorney Kelly Perkovich told PPS staff and administrators during a virtual presentation last month.
Perkovich warned the group of roughly 70 principals, security staff, counselors and office attendants that any knowledge of a family’s immigration status written into a student’s records would not be protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
While the federal law requires schools to keep student records confidential, there are exceptions: the law does not cover information compiled for a school directory or personal notes — things a school counselor might use as a “memory jogger,” Perkovich explained.
In a letter issued by the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Education Law Center this week, the groups urged school leaders to limit the information collected from families and establish protocols in the event immigration agents come to a school.
“The most important thing is that if ICE agents show up to interview a student or to talk about the students, that schools have no obligation to comply with that unless those immigration agents have a warrant or a subpoena that is signed by a judge,” said Witold Walczak, legal director at the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
Walczak said ICE agents often show up with subpoenas or warrants signed by another ICE agent, “which do not have the same force and effect of law” as a judicial warrant.
Guidance issued by Weiss Burkardt Kramer — a law firm that represents more than a dozen school districts throughout the region — recommended that educators take the following steps in the event agents approach:
- Call the district’s legal department. law department.
- Share the judicial warrant, court order, or subpoena with the firm’s office for review.
- Alert the Superintendent.
- Alert the family.
Fears remain as challenges evolve
While PPS attorneys said ICE did not initiate any enforcement actions on district property during the last Trump administration, Walczak said parents statewide were detained while dropping kids off at school or having just picked them up.
Kristina Moon, a senior attorney at the Education Law Center, said she’s already heard from immigrant students and families afraid to attend school. Students who are considered chronically absent from school can cause serious problems, affecting whether a student is likely to read by third grade or graduate from high school.
Moon also pointed to research that shows disruptions in attendance can harm the broader school community. One study found low classroom attendance rates affected academic achievement even among students who did show up.
“So it's really a disservice and damaging to our school communities if any particular student or population of students are missing school,” she said. “And certainly it's harmful if they're missing school because they're afraid their school does not know their rights under the law and won't be respecting their rights under the law.”
PPS superintendent Wayne Walters said the district will continue to monitor its attendance trends, though no significant changes were identified last week.
“We continue to see spaces and places we can be of support, and that's what we continue to do as a school district,” Walters said.
At Brashear High School in Beechview — home to one of Pittsburgh’s largest Latino communities — teachers printed and distributed hundreds of cards educating students and families about their constitutional rights.
Brashear served more than 250 English language learners as of October, and teachers say more have enrolled since then. The district’s overall population of English language learners has increased by 48% in the past two years.
Casa San Jose, an immigrant-serving nonprofit also based in Beechview, will hold power of attorney clinics throughout the coming weeks to assist parents in creating legal plans “to ensure their children are cared for and protected in the event of deportation.”
The ACLU and Education Law Center also recommend schools regularly remind families to update their emergency contact information and permissions, and circulate resources to help families designate a non-parent decision maker or temporary custody agreement in the event a student’s parents are deported or detained.
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey told reporters last week that his administration would not cooperate should ICE receive direction to arrest undocumented residents.
Jenna Baron with ARYSE is part of a collaborative of more than a dozen immigrant rights organizations in Pittsburgh working to address the quickly-evolving challenges immigrant families face.
ARYSE runs after-school and summer programs for immigrant and refugee youth in Allegheny County.
“Communication is happening a lot more regularly so that we can problem-solve more collectively and think even beyond this administration to how we're effectively and strategically collaborating to support the families that we work with,” Baron said.
