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How to help kids cope with ongoing ICE raids, deportations | Quick Guide
Los estudiantes de Las Positas College en Livermore participaron en una huelga en el campus en protesta por las políticas de inmigración de la administración actual.

Crédito: Ian Kapsalis/The Express

Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.
Top Takeaways

Families should have truthful conversations with children to help process feelings related to ongoing immigration raids.

Students who are afraid to go outside due to encounters with immigration agents can use remote, free mental health services in California.

During the summer, unstructured routine, social isolation and increased social media use can exacerbate feelings of sadness and fear.
With school out for the summer, some students may no longer have access to crucial support and services available during the academic school year, as fear and anxiety rise in their communities from ongoing immigration raids.

California schools are still safe havens for students attending summer school, meaning federal immigration officers are prohibited from entering them and child care facilities without proper legal authorization. But fears remain unabated for both children of immigrants and their friends, as federal immigration agents in California continue to detain, arrest and deport residents, in what community members say has become an indefinite fixture of the Trump administration.

Research shows that students are six times more likely to access mental health care during the school year than in the summer months, and that the absence of school-based services often leads to worsening mental health for students during the summer.

School social workers are unable to offer routine check-ins and on-campus counseling for students during the summer break, but families can take steps to support their child’s mental health and prepare for what experts are calling a child welfare and human rights crisis.

Talk through your child’s feelings

During the summer, children are much more likely to internalize traumatic events like raids on social media or outside of school, often in isolation and lacking the safe environment of a classroom to talk through their feelings about the day’s news.

To help them feel safe, school counselors and child psychologists recommend that families have truthful, open conversations about sweeps, rather than trying to shield them. Ahmanise Sanati, a school social worker in Los Angeles who works with children from immigrant communities as well as those unhoused, said families should start by asking children: “What have you heard?” and “How are you feeling?” They should then validate their child’s feelings of confusion, anxiety, grief or concern in developmentally appropriate ways, she said.

Both young and older children should understand their family’s risk profile — whether a family member could realistically be detained or deported by ICE, or whether they can be exposed to ICE agents in public spaces, for example. Families should spare younger children graphic or unnecessary details and limit or schedule older children’s social media use, Sanati said. Parents can assure their children that they’ll be OK, but not by telling them, “don’t be afraid” — because fear is a natural reaction.

Sanati says parents should center a child’s feelings, regardless of age, and that when feelings are repressed or minimized, witnessing raids, detentions and deportations, especially in childhood, can exacerbate risks of long-term mental illness.

“Children are already seeing masked individuals with weapons coming into the communities, tackling people and taking them away and putting them into vehicles,” Sanati said. “We have to acknowledge that some very scary things are happening in all of our communities — by lying about the magnitude of this, we may be risking our trust with our children in the future.”

Prepare for emergencies

If a loved one is at risk of being detained or deported, families should prepare and rehearse a step-by-step emergency plan with their child.

Students age 12 and over can role-play scenarios in which they might have to call for legal assistance or help build their legal defense, such as by taking pictures and recording names, badge numbers and descriptions of encounters with immigration agents, if possible. If a family member is detained by ICE, they should ensure other family members, including children, and emergency contacts have a copy of their A-Number, which is assigned to an undocumented person by the Department of Homeland Security, if they have one. Older children and family members should also know how to use the ICE detainee locator to find someone in custody.

“One way to validate a child who is afraid is by letting them know that their family will be ready for a worst-case scenario,” said Marta Melendez, a social worker with LAUSD. “If you don’t feel safe picking up groceries, for example, we have volunteers doing that for families. It’s OK for parents to feel afraid — that should not keep them from seeking support.”

Create a child care plan

Since children are spending more time at home and less time on protected school grounds during the summer, families should also create a child care plan in case a child is left unsupervised due to detention or deportation.

They can arrange for their child to be under the care of another trusted adult, such as a relative, family friend or neighbor, through a verbal agreement. Since this option is an informal arrangement, families should note that the chosen caregiver will not have legal authority to make medical or school-related decisions for their child.

Alternatively, families can have a trusted caregiver complete a Caregiver’s Authorization Affidavit, which would give them legal authority to make medical and school-related decisions on their child’s behalf. The CAA can only be used in California. It does not affect existing custody or parental rights.

Families can also have a state court appoint a guardian for their child, which, unlike a CAA, would grant the new guardian full legal and physical custody of the child. While guardianship does not terminate parental rights, it temporarily suspends them while the guardianship is in place. Families should seek legal counsel before considering this route.

If a child is a U.S. citizen, they should have their passports with them. They should also have important medical documents on file, including a list of medical conditions and medications, when applicable. Importantly, families should walk children through their child care plan and assure them that they will be cared for.

If families are unable to create a child care plan in case of an emergency, or if they become unhoused, they can go to any school that is open during the summer and ask to speak with their Pupil Services and Attendance counselor. Even if a child is not enrolled in summer school or programming, they have a right to stay on campus if there is no other safe location for them to go. PSA counselors can help families find long-term care for their child if necessary.

Families can follow Informed Immigrant steps, which provide guidance on protecting children and how to explain an emergency plan to them.

Find remote mental health support for your child

Families with undocumented or legal status have become increasingly afraid of stepping out — even for doctor’s appointments.

With the risks of seeking in-person care, combined with a lack of on-campus counseling during the summer, students can utilize various remote mental health services and asynchronous resources available for free.

BrightLife Kids, a part of California’s CalHOPE program, provides online behavioral health support through one-on-one coaching with licensed wellness coaches, educational and self-help tools and peer communities. Children age 0 to 12, parents and caregivers can use the program’s remote services to help kids manage worries, express feelings like sadness, anger and frustration, and learn resilience, problem-solving and communication. Coaching services are offered in both English and Spanish. Kids, parents or caregivers do not need to be U.S. citizens, nor do they have to have health insurance. Families can sign up on the BrightLife Kids website here.

Soluna, which is also a part of the CalHOPE program, offers free, confidential mental health support for people 13–25 years old in California. The app allows young Californians to select coaches based on 30 areas of focus, including anxiety, loneliness, substance misuse and demographic preferences such as ethnicity and gender. Users can also join peer support groups in carefully moderated, confidential environments. The app download is available on the Soluna website here.

School-based wellness centers often have year-round mental health intervention and support services available for students. Many offer psychiatric social workers who provide services like trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and programs for children and families who have experienced adverse events or traumatic stress. A full list of wellness centers in California is available here.

Los Angeles Unified students and families can call 213-241-3840 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to get access to mental health services. Families can also directly refer their children to in-person or telehealth counseling through a referral form for the School Mental Health Clinics and Wellness Centers.

Practice healthy coping skills as a family

According to Melendez, families can prepare for scenarios like an ICE raid, detention or deportation by preemptively building their and their child’s mental health tool kit, similar to an emergency plan. Research shows that even basic mindfulness interventions can mitigate the short- and long-term negative effects of stress and trauma, and these techniques, when taught bilingually, are especially effective for populations such as the Latino community.

To start, Melendez recommends learning mindfulness practices such as box breathing, butterfly hug, guided meditation and positive affirmation, which are common techniques known to help children regulate their nervous system, cope with symptoms of anxiety or depression and perform better in school. Parents and caregivers should practice these techniques with their child to model calming rituals and build emotional resilience as a family unit, Melendez said.

“You should also prioritize something that is a positive outlet for the child,” Melendez said. “Whether they like to play sports, to write about their feelings, draw about their feelings, sing about their feelings, if they want to dance about their feelings — make sure that they have a way of processing all the emotions that they are experiencing.”

Data indicate a spike in both substance use and feelings of sadness among adolescents during the summer, which worsens in part due to unstructured routine, increased isolation and increased social media use.

To create a sense of normalcy for children, Melendez said families should do their best to maintain healthy routines and hobbies during the summer, especially those that promote social connection with their peers.
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01/07/2025
FAFSA delays are leaving students in limbo. California campuses don’t expect help

Sheilds Library at UC Davis.

Credit: Karin HIggins/UC Davis

The U.S. Department of Education is attempting to solve issues associated with this year’s rocky rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and ensure colleges and universities release financial aid packages in a timely manner through a new plan announced Monday — but some California campuses remain pessimistic about receiving support.

This year, 17 million students across the nation completed the redesigned form and are now awaiting offers from colleges. Last year, more than 1 million California students submitted FAFSA applications, marking a 5.9% increase from the previous year, when Covid was said to have hindered the number of applicants.

Despite the department unveiling a simpler, quicker form in a “soft launch” on Dec. 31, this year’s FAFSA process has come with four-to-six week delays, and colleges and universities throughout the country won’t receive students’ financial aid applications until March at the earliest. As a result, many campuses are contemplating extending the May 1 commitment deadline for high school seniors whose decisions about where to enroll rest on the financial aid they receive.

“We’re not only talking about a better form or a better system. We’re talking about a better shot at accessing higher education for more than 600,000 American students. We’re talking about a better chance to go to college for students who would qualify for Pell Grants,” said Miguel Cardona, the U.S. secretary of education, at a news conference announcing the department’s plan Monday.

“We’re talking about making the American dream more achievable for so many more people who could realize the incredible potential they have through higher education but have been deterred by the cost and complexity of our current system.”

As part of the plan unveiled Monday, the department will send about 50 federal student aid officials to colleges and universities throughout the nation to help “prepare and process” students’ financial aid forms.

Senior Education Department officials did not provide a number or list of campuses that will receive support, but they emphasized that lower-resourced campuses will be prioritized, including historically Black colleges and universities and tribal colleges.

The plan also includes $50 million in federal funding for nonprofit organizations that focus on financial aid support. The department will also release test records for campuses to model.

“Ensuring our nation’s colleges and universities are prepared to assist in the massive overhaul of the FAFSA is critical for a smooth implementation, and we are excited to be partners in this work,” said Justin Draeger, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, in a statement.

“These are some of the biggest changes facing the financial aid profession — not to mention students and families — in decades, and it will take cooperation, clear communication, and mutual trust among all stakeholders to get us over the finish line. We are eager to begin this work and look forward to sharing more details soon.”

However, Cal Poly Pomona officials doubt the plan to support campuses outlined by the U.S. Department of Education will do much to help CSU, UC or community colleges in California. Charles Conn, the campus’s associate director of financial aid, also said the announced measures should have been taken months ago.

So far, the UC system has not decided whether to push back the May 1 deadline, but Rachel Zaentz, a spokesperson for the UC Office of the President, told Inside Higher Ed that the delays might have “significant implications” for students’ decisions.

Several Cal State campuses, however, have opted to adjust their timelines — as that is something officials say they can control.

Cal Poly Pomona, for example, has updated its commitment deadline for incoming first-year students to June 1 as a result of the delays, according to Jessica Wagoner, the campus’s senior associate vice president for enrollment management and services.

“It’s heartbreaking … to see this happening and know the impact that it has on the students, especially first-generation students from a lower income, or even the lower middle-class students,” Conn said.

“They’re relying on this information, and the Department of Education has really failed the graduating class as well as students who maybe are looking to transition from a community college over to a four-year college.”

Typically, Cal Poly Pomona would determine aid offers by the end of February. This year, as a result of issues with student information systems and the Department of Education’s delays, they probably won’t be able to extend offers until the middle of April.

Conn added that delays will likely challenge students who need to update their records and that there are still some families unable to complete the FAFSA — including families where at least one parent doesn’t have a social security number.

“That’s a big population,” Conn said. “It’s not like two or three students. It’s in the hundreds if not thousands of our students that fall into that scenario across the system.”

Most continuing students, however, will not be impacted, Conn said.

Delays with the FAFSA have also affected Cal Poly Pomona’s other operations and the ability to predict the nature of the incoming class, ranging from the number of students attending to the distribution of different majors, according to Traci Lew, the interim associate director of admissions.

It also tightens the turnaround time for organizing campus events such as orientation — which takes place 10 days after the June 1 deadline.

Despite the challenges posed by the later deadline, Lew emphasized that “we can’t allow families to make shotgun decisions.”

“We want to help our students, and right now we can’t. We are blind to the information,” Wagoner said. “So if they call us, there’s nothing we can say to assist and support our students. We should be on the phone helping them, guiding them, and we can’t do that.”

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14/06/2025
Strategic, sustainable residencies can help solve the teacher shortage

Teacher candidates in the Claremont Graduate University teacher residency program spend an entire year working with a mentor teacher in Corona Norco Unified classrooms.

Courtesy: Claremont Graduate University School of Education Studies

Public schools in California are facing historic staffing challenges: rising rates of dissatisfaction and burnout within the current workforce and unprecedented shortages of future teachers, as increased housing and education costs deter potential teachers from entering the field.

But university teacher preparation programs and school districts can create more effective partnerships to meet these demands.

Historically, the partnerships between teacher preparation programs and school districts have been transactional: teacher preparation programs place student teachers in districts for short periods of time without considering district needs. To change this dynamic, teacher preparation schools launched residency programs to ensure new teachers better understood the communities they were serving. Residencies are similar to student teaching models, but differ in that they are for a full year. Within a residency, aspiring teachers take on increasingly more responsibility in the classroom alongside a mentor teacher for the entire year, gain familiarity with the ebbs and flows of the school year, and assume full teaching responsibilities by the end of the year.

Over the last five years, California has dedicated more than $350 million for teacher residencies to better prepare future educators and help diversify the workforce. Research shows candidates who go through a residency become more effective teachers more quickly than those launching their careers through other pathways, and they are likely to remain in the profession longer. It costs a district roughly $20,000 to hire a new teacher; by reducing turnover, residencies are not only good for new teachers and K-12 students, but also for school district budgets.

Unfortunately, budget cuts and day-to-day needs have limited districts’ capacity to develop residency programs, and aspiring teachers have avoided them because the full-year commitment and small or nonexistent stipends offered by many programs renders them unaffordable to most.

One promising avenue to meet these challenges is by creating mutually beneficial partnerships between university teacher preparation programs and school districts to help place and nurture new teachers in the field. These partnerships require transparency, a clear vision, and shared investments. With these elements in place, they have the opportunity to meet districts’ staffing needs and teacher preparation programs’ enrollment goals while surrounding new teachers with systems of social and professional support. These partnerships also provide stipends and embedded professional development that enrich existing teachers’ work with new avenues for leadership as mentors to new teachers.

One example of a creative and effective partnership can be found between Claremont Graduate University and Corona-Norco Unified School District. The university and the district had worked together for many years, with Corona-Norco hiring many Claremont alums, but they had never formalized a partnership. With a foundation of mutual trust and understanding, the district shared data about their current and anticipated staffing needs, and the faculty of the Claremont teacher education program shared insight into their students’ experiences, strengths and needs entering the profession. Understanding the benefits that a residency program provides to veteran teachers, students and the district as a whole, the district committed to paying residents a living stipend from reallocated budget dollars.

A shared vision is key to a successful partnership. For example, both the university and the district have a strong commitment to diversity. This is visible in the diverse participants recruited by Claremont’s teacher education program, who are drawn to its deeply rooted commitment to social justice and humanizing relationships. It also reflects Corona-Norco Unified’s mission to foster the wellness of their students by cultivating an educator pool that better reflects the diversity of its students and communities. This mutual commitment to what teaching can and should be created pathways for recruiting experienced mentor teachers from the district interested in professional development with the university that leveraged and built from their knowledge and expertise. Research shows that grouping mentors in community with other experienced teachers and giving them opportunities to engage not only as practitioners but also as intellectuals helps fend off burnout and gives them a renewed sense of purpose.

The teacher residencies that have come out of this partnership buffer participants from the overwhelm and burnout so many other new teachers face by embedding them within a community of support that includes university advisers and faculty alongside mentor teachers and advisers at the district. The residents not only learn from their university classes and experiences in their mentor teachers’ classrooms, but also from opportunities to work with colleagues to support students who are struggling academically, working with small groups of students, analyzing students’ work with department teams, and interacting with parents and caregivers at drop-off and during teacher conferences. The breadth and depth of these experiences give residents confidence that when they step into their own classroom, they’ll be ready to meet the needs of students and have colleagues to call upon when they need support.

District leaders are ready to hire their residents after they earn their master’s degree and credential and eager to have more residents at their school sites. School principals note that residents provide data-driven, hyper-personalized instruction to students that they otherwise would not be able to offer. Students love residents, often running up to them during lunch and recess for hugs. And parents and caregivers appreciate having more people around who care about their kids. Having more adults on campus who know and are known by more students benefits everyone.

With more partnerships like this, the possibilities to innovate and strengthen learning for everyone at our schools grow exponentially. This story is just the beginning.

•••

Rebecca Hatkoff, PhD, is the interim director of teacher education at Claremont Graduate University.

Debra Russell works as part of the California Educator Preparation Innovation Collaborative team at Chapman University to promote strategic teacher residency models across the state.

The opinions in this commentary are those of the authors. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.

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13/06/2025
CSU campuses focus on new strategies to help students of color

CSU’s Young Males of Color conference in October 2023.

Credit: CSU Dominguez Hills

Last year, Cal State campuses received some sobering details about the growing gaps in graduation rates between students of color and their white counterparts. Instead of decreasing, the graduation equity gaps between Black, Latino and Native or Indigenous students have been increasing.

But some campuses are targeting new dollars and deploying new strategies to specifically target students of color that will help increase graduation, persistence and retention.

CSU’s Young Males of Color Consortium, which is housed at Cal State Dominguez Hills, received $3.2 million from a group of organizations including Ballmer Group, College Futures Foundation, ECMC Foundation and Ichigo Foundation to create new programs that support men of color on Cal State campuses. Sixteen CSU campuses and their neighboring community colleges will deploy those programs with the goal of improving rates of transfer, retention and graduation for up to 800 students. The partnered universities and colleges will start working with up to 40 young men each to pilot the new strategies.

The consortium, which started in 2017, has the goal of working across campuses to share information and data, and find solutions to help CSU’s Black and brown men.

The main challenge the consortium realized it needed to tackle was “institutional complacency” because many campuses failed to have the right data on students of color, or limited their investment in improving their academic performance, said William Franklin, vice president of student affairs for the Dominguez Hills campus.

Last year, during CSU’s Graduation Initiative 2025 event, new data revealed the graduation gap between Black, Latino and Native American students and their peers increased by 1 point to a 13% difference. The 2023 six-year graduation rate for Black students, for example, is at 47% but 62% for all students.

The rates on the Dominguez Hills campus, for example, are lower for Black and Latino men. The six-year rate for Black men is 36.4% and 38.9% for Latino men on the campus. Data for Native American and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students was not available.

“We need to hire full-time folks and we need to really give them training,” Franklin said. “We need to begin to connect with our institutional research office and understand our data better. It doesn’t necessarily mean we need more money, but we do need to spend the money that we have differently in order to ensure that those male of color programs get the kind of support they need.”

With the new funding, the campuses will work together to assess and evaluate instructors and staff, while also providing professional development opportunities. The campuses would also work with their community college partners to better assist them in transferring more Black and brown students to the universities.

Members of the consortium have already visited other universities outside of California that have seen success in improving graduation rates for Black and Latino students such as Georgia State University, Urban Prep Academies in Chicago and the University of Texas at Austin, Franklin said.

And while they’re unsure which strategies will work best for Cal State students, figuring it out is part of the funding.

“Our funders have also given us an opportunity to take the funding they’ve given us to provide it as seed money for campuses to put some innovative programs and strategies in place,” Franklin said. “Fail fast or succeed fast, and learn what they need to do in order to scale those things that work.”

Black Honors College

Sacramento State is also trying something new to help not only the Black students on its campuses but across the system.

This fall, the university will debut the country’s first Black Honors College. Sac State has one of the CSU’s largest populations of Black students, and low graduation rates. The six-year rate for all Black students is about 45%.

“We’re the No. 1 institution serving Black students and we’re in the bottom third when it comes to graduation rates,” Sac State President Luke Wood said. “Our 75-year history has shown that what we’re doing is not working. I don’t just speak about that from the perspective of being president here, but I was a student here at Sac State. I got my bachelor’s degree here. I got my master’s degree here, and many of the people who are my contemporaries never graduated because the institution is not designed to support Black students.”

Sac State officials also looked outside of California for solutions, particularly at historically Black colleges and universities where graduation rates are much higher.

“We’re creating an institution within the institution so students have a standalone experience with their own curriculum, their own faculty, their staff, their space,” Wood said.

The college would be open to students of all majors, but the first two years of curriculum would have an African-American focus. For example, political science or statistics classes would have a unique focus on Black politics, issues and community.

Wood said the idea is built on research that shows creating a “family-like environment” and offering a curriculum relevant to students’ lives and experiences improves their academic success.

The new college will have 6,000-square feet of dedicated space with its own faculty, dean, counselors, academic advisers, support staff and outreach. But the ultimate goal is to see more Black Honors Colleges appear statewide and nationally, despite the conservative attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion happening in other states.

But Wood anticipates more Black Honors Colleges appearing on community college campuses, some of which have already contacted Sac State for guidance or information, with the potential to establish a transfer relationship with the university.

“We’re going to grow this Honors College pretty extensively,” he said. “Our goal right now is 500 or 600, but when we can get more resources, our goal is to get to a thousand students.”

NOTE: EdSource receives funding from several foundations, including the College Futures Foundation and ECMC Foundation. EdSource maintains sole editorial control over the content of its coverage.

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09/06/2025
Can arts education help children heal from trauma?

A print-making class at Pine Ridge Elementary.

Credit: Butte County Office of Education

The catastrophic Camp Fire roared through Northern California’s Butte County in 2018, charring the landscape, taking 86 lives and destroying countless homes and habitats in the town of Paradise.

The deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history at the time, the fire spread at the rate of 80 football fields a minute at its peak, scorching the hearts and minds of the people who live there, especially the children.

That’s why the Butte County Office of Education sent trauma-informed arts educators into the schools, to help students cope with their fear, grief and loss. Buildings can be repaired far more quickly than the volatile emotions of children scarred by tragedy. Long after the flames died down, the heightened sense of fragility that often follows trauma lingered.

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“The people displaced from Paradise were suffering from acute trauma, running for their lives, losing their houses and being displaced,” said Jennifer Spangler, arts education coordinator at Butte County Office of Education. “This county has been at the nexus of a lot of impactful traumas, so it makes sense that we would want to create something that directly addresses it.

Even now, years after the conflagration, many residents are still healing from the aftermath. For example, the county has weathered huge demographic shifts, including spikes in homelessness, in the wake of the fire, which have unsettled the community. All of that came on the heels of the 2017 Oroville dam evacuations and longstanding issues of poverty, drug addiction and unemployment, compounding the sense of trauma.

“Butte County already had the highest adverse childhood experiences (ACES) scores in the state,” said Spangler. “We’re economically depressed, with high numbers of foster kids and unstable family lives and drugs. I think the fire was just another layer, and then Covid was another layer on top of that.”

Chris Murphy is a teaching artist who has worked with children in Paradise public schools as well as those at the Juvenile Hall School. He believes that theater can be a kind of restorative practice, helping students heal from their wounds in a safe space.

“Arts education is so effective in working with students impacted by trauma because the creative process operates on an instinctual level,” said Murphy, an actor best known for voicing the role of Murray in the “Sly Cooper” video game franchise for Sony’s PlayStation. “All arts are basically a way to tell a story and, as human beings, we are hard-wired to engage in storytelling as both participant and observer. A bond of mutual respect and trust develops among the group as they observe each other’s performances and make each other laugh. Over time, the environment takes on a more relaxed and safe quality.”

A drumming class at Palermo Middle School.
Credit: Butte County Office of Education

Another teaching artist, Kathy Naas, specializes in teaching drumming as part of a social-emotional learning curriculum that helps students find redemption in the visceral call-and-response rhythms of the drum circle.

“Trauma is powerful and is connected to something that occurred in the past,” said Naas, a drummer who is currently performing with a samba group as well as a Congolese group based in Chico. “Drumming occurs in the present moment and engages the brain so much that fear, pain and sadness cannot break through.”

To be sure, the use of trauma-informed arts ed techniques goes beyond natural disasters. Many arts advocates believe that these techniques can help children cope with myriad stressors.

“Now more than ever, these cycles of traumatic events, they just keep coming,” said Spangler, who modeled the Butte program after a similar one in Sonoma County in the wake of the devastating 2017 Tubbs Fire.

Children who have experienced trauma may experience negative effects in many aspects of their lives, experts warn. They may struggle socially in school, get lower grades, and be suspended or expelled. They may even become involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice system.

“An individual who has been impacted by trauma, especially ongoing toxic stressors like a home environment with addiction, neglect or abuse, develops a brain chemistry that is detrimental to cognitive function … essentially locking the brain in a fight-flight-freeze cycle,” Murphy said. “With this understanding of what the trauma-affected student is going through, I use theater arts to disrupt the cycle.”

It should also be noted that delayed reactions are par for the course when dealing with post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), experts say. Some children will show their distress readily, while others may try to hide their struggle.

Coming out of the pandemic, the healing power of the arts has been cast into wide relief as public health officials seek tools to grapple with the youth mental health crisis.

“Music can, in a matter of seconds, make me feel better,” said U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy during an arts summit organized by the White House Domestic Policy Council and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). “I’ve prescribed a lot of medicines as a doctor over the years. There are few I’ve seen that have that kind of extraordinary, instantaneous effect.”

A trauma-informed arts ed class involving theater in Butte County.
Credit: Butte County Office of Education

Drumming can help build empathy, Naas says, because it allows for self-expression but also encourages a sense of ensemble, listening to others and taking turns.

“Drumming is a powerful activity that creates community,” said Naas. “What I notice about drumming with children is that students become excited, motivated, and fully engaged at the very start. They reach for the rhythms and begin exploring the drums right away.”

Arts and music can nurture a visceral feeling of belonging that can help combat the isolation that often follows a tragic event, experts say. This may also provide some relief for those grappling with the aftershocks of the pandemic.

“The truth is we are all dealing with hardships associated with the pandemic and with learning loss, and we know that the arts, social-emotional learning and engagement can create a healing environment,” said Peggy Burt, a statewide arts education consultant based in Los Angeles. “Children need to heal to develop community, develop a sense of belonging and a sense of readiness so that they can learn.”

The families of Butte county know that in their bones. Trauma can fester long after the emergency has passed, after the headlines and the hoopla. Turning tragedy into art may be one way to heal.

“I’ve seen it over and over in these classrooms, the kids quiet down, they’re calm, they’re focused,” said Spangler. “You can see the profound impact the arts have on the kids every day.”

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08/06/2025
Calls, home visits, counseling help get California students back to school

When first grader Jordan Muñoz stopped going to school during the 2022-23 school year, his mother attributed it to depression, following the deaths of Muñoz’s great-grandfather and uncle. Some days, his mom couldn’t get him out of the house. Other days, she’d get him dressed and to the corner of Fresno’s Fremont Elementary, but he’d take off running. Most often, she failed to get him beyond the school parking lot.

“I tried to just take him. Leave him at school. But he would get right in front of my car so I wouldn’t leave,” said Muñoz’s mom, Deyanira Pacheco.

Aware of the difficulty, administration, counselors, psychologists and teachers at his Fresno Unified school developed a plan to support Muñoz, according to Cecilia Aguayo, the district’s child welfare and attendance specialist.

The district of over 70,000 students had made such plans before in an effort to reduce chronic absenteeism rates, which went from 50.3% during the 2021-22 school year to 35.4% in 2022-23. While this is still higher than pre-pandemic years, the decrease stands in sharp contrast to other districts, like Oakland Unified, where chronic absences rose from 47.5% to 61.4% during the same years.

Statewide, nearly a quarter of K-12 students remained chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year — a decline of about 5 percentage points from the previous school year, but a sign of the lingering effects of the pandemic that led to sharp drops in student attendance after schools reopened for in-person instruction. Students who are chronically absent from school are sometimes also the same children who do not have their basic needs met: Federal data shows that nearly half of all California homeless students, 44.5%, were chronically absent during the 2021-22 school year.

Nearly a third of the 930 districts statewide that reported data had a higher rate of chronic absenteeism in 2022-23 than the year before. A small number of districts, 33, had a chronic absenteeism rate over 50% in 2022-23, the most recent data available.

EdSource’s analysis of data from the California Department of Education offers insight: The statewide average rate of excused absences for the 2022-23 school year was 54.7%, with unexcused absences at 39.2%. Both numbers are similar to pre-pandemic levels.

While both excused and unexcused absences are counted toward chronic absenteeism rates, a school’s knowledge of the reasons behind the absences can better help them support and re-engage students.

Researchers and school staff have long tried to better understand how to re-engage chronically absent students, or students who missed 10% or more days in one school year.

State education code lists over a dozen reasons for excusing students from school; however, interviews with districts show that many excused absences are mental health and illness-related. Unexcused absences could indicate that students did not have proper documentation to mark them excused, or that they provided no reason for their absence or that the reason they provided does not qualify as an excusable absence.

Fresno Unified is in the Central San Joaquin Valley and is the state’s third-largest district. Across the 30 districts in Fresno County, all but four decreased their chronic absences between 2021-22 and 2022-23. Altogether, the average change was 11.62 percentage points, with Fresno Unified, the county’s largest district, above average with a gain of 14.9 percentage points.

The district credits their targeted communication with families as the foundation for their improvement, a method echoed by researchers as highly effective.

Child welfare and attendance specialist Aguayo made phone calls, visited Muñoz’s home and popped up at the school when Pacheco picked up her other child, a kindergartner, who soon followed his brother’s example and sometimes refused to attend school. The district referred them to counseling services.

Although Pacheco, the kids’ mother, said the visits and calls helped in a way, she didn’t pursue counseling, perhaps thinking it wouldn’t work, Aguayo said.

By the end of the 2022-23 school year, Muñoz had attended only 27 days out of 179 days enrolled — a 15% attendance rate. Of the days missed, only six were excused. The school district didn’t give up on him, however. They used every tool to get him back to school.

Oakland Unified’s rising chronic absences

Farther north, in Oakland, chronic absences increased from 47.5% in the 2021-22 school year to 61.4% the following school year. But the high rate was already clear prior to the pandemic, at 34.4% during 2018-19.

“There hasn’t been a ‘normal’ year in many years,” said Heather Palin, the district’s director of multitiered systems of support, about chronic absences, in October. “Just broadly speaking, this is way higher than pre-Covid.”

Oakland Unified, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a diverse district of 46,000 students that is currently facing a significant budget deficit. Most districts across Alameda County, of which Oakland Unified is the largest, either saw a decrease in chronic absenteeism or had virtually no change between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. Oakland Unified ranked last and stands out with an increase of 13.9 percentage points.

The district has adopted a plan aimed at reducing its 61.4% district absentee rate by 25 percentage points with similar drops in each individual school, Palin said.

Each Oakland Unified school is expected to have an attendance team that meets regularly and includes an administrator, community school manager, attendance specialist and principal. Teams’ plans for increasing attendance include offering incentives like attendance certificates, celebrations and swag.

“It was an expectation that was set last year, and we have more capacity to support it, and we’re more kind of unified as a system in the messaging around the importance of that team,” Palin said.

The district offers a virtual school, Sojourner Truth Virtual Academy, but it’s not aimed at students who are chronically absent. Rather, it’s a different learning format offered to all students.

Cumulative enrollment data shows that this school remained a popular choice for students: it had 250 enrolled students pre-pandemic, then jumped to 1,533 students during 2021-22. The following year, 2022-23, nearly 1,000 remained enrolled.

Palin said that district authorities do not know why all students are chronically absent because schools were unable to reach some families. The students they reached mostly said they no longer wanted to attend school or requested a transfer to the virtual academy. Students also cited illness, family relocation, mental health and safety concerns.

How insight from families can help

While school administrators can excuse absences based on students’ individual circumstances — even if the reason is typically not covered by state law — they can only do so if they know the difficulties absent students are experiencing.

According to a recently published PACE report that examined California attendance data across the 2017 and 2022 school years, schools with higher rates of unexcused absences often have lower attendance rates overall. The same study by the nonprofit research group found that “socioeconomically disadvantaged students are much more likely to have their absences labeled unexcused.”

To address the number of illness-related absences, Fresno Unified clarified expectations, informing families about appropriate scenarios in which to send their kids to school. Consequently, excused absences increased from 41.3% in 2021-22 to 54.8% the following year, while unexcused absences decreased from 64% to 43.4%.

When the district knows what’s impacting student attendance, they can support, not penalize families, which many feared, said Tashiana Aquino, executive director of support programs, and Abigail Arii, director of the district’s student support services.

The very few excused absences that Muñoz had, along with conversations with his mother, helped the district set up a plan to increase his attendance.

Staff sent letters, called, visited the home, and educated Pacheco about attendance laws. “They asked me why he didn’t want to stay at school,” Pacheco said.

But even with a plan in place, Pacheco couldn’t get Muñoz, 7, to school.

By Sept. 23, 2022, she’d enrolled Muñoz in the district’s eLearn Academy, hoping he’d complete the work from home. Still, he wouldn’t. Six weeks later, he was re-enrolled at Fremont but was still not attending school.

Pacheco faced a school attendance review board (SARB) case in June 2023, a step “we really tried to avoid,” Aguayo said.

But the case was the “wake-up call” that pushed Pacheco to get the help she and Muñoz needed, said district staff.

“I think that’s where she realized, ‘I need to step up, too,’” said Tainia Yeppez, the SARB technician.

During the case, Fresno Unified again referred the family to counseling services. This time, in summer 2023, Pacheco started Muñoz in therapy.

New, more flexible solutions

Ongoing chronic absenteeism requires new thinking, advocates say, to ensure students do not fall back on foundational academic skills.

“Just because kids are not in the school building doesn’t mean we can’t still figure out creative and innovative ways to educate them. These chronic absenteeism rates are not going to just drop,” said Lakisha Young, CEO and founder of parent advocacy group Oakland REACH. “Everybody is in uncharted territory. So the question is: ‘Can we change the conversation?’”

At the height of the pandemic, Oakland REACH established a virtual learning hub for Oakland Unified’s K-2 students, offering tutoring that kept them engaged and attending school regularly. Early results showed that 60% of their students improved two or more reading levels on the Oakland Unified assessment, while 30% improved three or more levels. The organization now offers paid fellowships for Oakland caregivers to work as tutors producing high academic results.

Part of the challenge with common alternative learning formats to re-engage absent students while meeting their academic needs is that they are not always viable for students whose homes do not have the space to designate for schoolwork, said Young.

“A family who chooses to home-school has a different setup than a kid that’s chronically absent, but it doesn’t mean they can’t be given that option,” she said. It’s up to each district to find the solutions that would best serve their students, she added.

Southern California’s Glendale Unified is one of the few school districts with a slight decrease of 1% in their absenteeism rate plus low excused and unexcused absences: 20.6% and 22.3%, respectively.

Last school year, more students met with the district SARB, said Hagop Eulmessekian, Glendale Unified director of student services.

To address increasing mental health concerns, every Glendale Unified school has a wellness center where students can take a break during the school day. If a student is experiencing behavioral challenges, they are transferred to a community day school where they take each class in the same room throughout the day while teachers rotate for different subjects.

“There’s no wiggle room for the students who kind of disappear” throughout the day, said Eulmessekian. “They get the same education, they get fed, they get additional support, whether it’s counseling or therapy, and then when we see they’re able to go back on our comprehensive campuses, we transfer them back.”

Oakland REACH’s Young encourages educators to think outside the box.

“We have got to get creative about these babies,” said Young. “At some point you have got to do something different. You have got to just say: ‘This kid’s at home, how do I still get them educated?’”

Back in Fresno, Muñoz has done a complete 180. As of March, his attendance rate is 98%.

“Counseling really does help a lot,” Pacheco said.

She also needed to learn skills to address the boy’s behavior, Aguayo said. “I think she kind of got the power she needed. She finally got control.”

Of 128 days, he’s only missed two, one of which was excused. Even on days when he’s sad about losing his great-grandfather and uncle, he goes to school, Pacheco said. In fact, he made a commitment at the beginning of the school year to attend every day.

“Now, he wakes up at 6 in the morning, ready to go,” Pacheco said with a grin. Muñoz, now 8, likes going to school to play soccer with his friends.

He is behind academically — the impact of not attending school for most of his first-grade year, Pacheco said. The school provides additional academic support through remediation classes.

“All he needed to do was attend,” Yeppez said.

Because of his current high attendance rate, the court dismissed the SARB case in December, and Muñoz ended counseling in February.

For other families with students not regularly attending school, Pacheco said schools and districts must help them by talking to them and figuring out the problem, much like Fresno Unified did for her, and families must utilize the provided or recommended services, such as counseling.

“I think it was a little bit of everything that helped mom,” Yeppez said. “She was willing to get the help, accept the help and make that change. She was willing to make that change for her son’s success.”

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04/06/2025
California must help schools add green space

Credit: Joe Sorrentino / The Trust for Public Land

Last year, in the middle of a historic heat wave, I visited an elementary school that I represent in South Los Angeles. Visits like this are one of the best parts of my job — it’s an opportunity to get to know students, teachers, and administrators, and to see the great things that happen every day in Los Angeles Unified School District. I finished around noon, and as I left, the school seemed oddly quiet. Looking around, I saw that students had all abandoned the play yard to sit under the shade of a few trees on the edge of the campus.

The mercury that day was above 90, which meant the temperature coming off the asphalt that covers the school was probably over 140 degrees. It’s not uncommon in the dog days of summer to see students huddled up against our buildings seeking precious inches of shade, or sheltering inside as the weather begins to overpower air conditioning systems. But this wasn’t summer at all; we were in the middle of the hottest October on record. It’s possible that every October now will be the hottest October on record.

Extreme weather is our new normal, and for the sake of kids in this state, our schools must adapt to it. Extreme heat is harmful to kids’ mental and physical health, and hotter temperatures impede classroom learning and hurt students’ exam performance, which can lower graduation rates. At the same time, studies show that spending time outdoors can benefit kids by reducing stress, improving concentration, reducing negative social behavior, and even improving test scores. Across California, we have to rebuild our schools to give students access to nature and reduce the impact of extreme heat.

But green schoolyards are also essential modern infrastructure for everybody, not just students. They absolutely increase academic success, but they also improve community health, reduce the urban heat island effect, and provide massive opportunities for rainwater capture in a state that is plagued by flooding even while it is desperate for drought relief. They can also provide access to nature and recreation for communities that lack park space. Throughout the state, districts are some of the largest local landowners. California simply cannot adapt to climate change without reimagining what our schools look like.

We are making progress, but nowhere near as quickly as we need to. In September 2022, the LAUSD Board of Education voted to create “Green Schools for All” in Los Angeles by 2035. This requires a dramatic conversion of all our campuses to at least 30% green space — including shade trees, bioswales, gardens, native plants and other investments that will turn our schools from concrete-and-asphalt jungles to outdoor learning environments and play fields. Currently, over 560 Los Angeles Unified School District schools are below our 30% target, and over 230 schools have less than 10% green space. The district estimates that the overall cost of fixing this situation is $4 billion.

We have worked hard to identify resources for this crucial greening effort, resulting in over $500 million in bonds and other funding to increase green space at dozens of our campuses. Millions of dollars in CalFire funding will make improvements at almost 40 additional schools, but this was a one-time funding source and will get us nowhere near the target. Forget about 2035 — at this rate, we won’t meet our target until after 2050, when temperatures will regularly pass 100 degrees and the number of “extremely hot” days over 95 degrees will triple. Schools in Los Angeles — and throughout California — clearly do not have the money for a transformation this huge and this critical. Without funding from the state, no school districts will finish this necessary work on the timeline that our new climate reality demands.

This is why I am asking our Legislature to allocate $1 billion for schoolyard greening in this year’s school bond measure. The urgency of this moment comes from a climate emergency that we adults are passing on to the most vulnerable people among us — our own children, many of them in low-income communities disproportionately impacted by climate change. But few emergencies provide so many opportunities for widely distributed positive change at the same time. By providing sufficient funding for schoolyard greening, our leaders in Sacramento will improve academic outcomes and provide access to green space for students regardless of their ZIP code, and at the same time, they will build the foundation of a climate resilient future for all Californians.

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Jackie Goldberg is president of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.

The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.

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01/06/2025
How strong teacher residency programs can help us retain teachers in California

Courtesy: Aspire Public Schools

Plenty of conversations in California have focused on recruiting teachers into the profession as a way to grapple with the state’s teacher shortage. This is important, and as a transitional kindergarten teacher, I am acutely aware of how quality teachers can impact our students and communities.

I pursued teaching largely because I want to be the representation I didn’t see growing up. I participated in a teacher residency program that built my confidence in the classroom and taught me to connect with my students by highlighting my own identity. It’s not only the way I was recruited to the profession, it’s also played a role in my retention.

To continue to tackle the teacher shortage, I believe California needs more strong teacher residency programs. Nearly 37% of U.S. public schools experienced at least one teacher vacancy, contributing to nearly half of public school students entering the 2023-24 school year behind grade level in at least one subject. Amid these shortages, California is still reeling from the repercussions of surpassing 10,000 vacancies during the 2021-22 school year. The effects are felt even more so in under-resourced, Latino or Black communities.

At Aspire Richmond Technology Academy, where I teach, I can see how we must prepare educators and then provide the tools for teachers to sustain themselves. It’s how we can prevent shortages and retain teachers down the road.

It was a winding road for me to realize that teaching was my calling. I never envisioned myself becoming an educator, largely because I rarely saw teachers who looked like me or who connected with me on a cultural level. While studies point to the importance of a demographic match between teachers and students, I experienced a real lack of Asian representation in education. 

This changed when I went to college. With more exposure to Asian professors, I finally felt seen and represented. I felt empowered that education was a field I could pursue. And I put the puzzle pieces together — that all of my volunteer work and extracurricular activities centered around helping students. By the time I switched majors, I had some catching up to do.

When I learned about teacher residency programs in California, I jumped at the opportunity. I received a master’s degree and a California teaching credential in a single year. Even in my first year of teaching, I felt more prepared than other teacher friends. 

While we can’t solve the teacher shortage overnight, here’s how we can ensure we’re training more young people to become highly effective educators and stay in the profession.

First, we need an intensive teacher residency program that builds confidence. Through Aspire’s teacher residency program at Alder Graduate School of Education, I apprenticed four days a week and had a personal mentor in the classroom with me who provided me with critical one-on-one support. Toward the end of my time as an apprentice, one of the students in our classroom asked my mentor, “So, what’s your job?” This gave me the confidence to teach the following year on my own. I learn best through a hands-on approach, so four days a week in the classroom with one day for intensive seminars and subject-matter courses helped me gain more real life experience.

Second, this wouldn’t be possible without strategic financial supports. We know that systemic inequities, including the high cost of college, hold too many back from pursuing a career in education. Ensuring teacher residents receive a stipend while earning their degree and credential(s) can help. Through a partnership, the program I participated in is helping to support staff members in earning and paying for an undergraduate degree with teaching credentials. Given the importance of representation in the classroom, the partnership prioritizes aspiring teachers of color and those from the local communities.

Finally, we should expand teacher residency programs that are accessible for individuals of all backgrounds. While California has made big investments in teacher residency programs, we also need to focus on effective teacher training initiatives that reflect our school’s communities. When I participated, my teacher residency program focused on “head, heart and hands.” This meant that we integrated theory and research (head), with a culturally responsive equity lens (heart), and our coursework mirrored our field work (hands). Highlighting representation, multiculturalism and identity continues to be stressed throughout the program — and it’s something I hold dear to my heart.

Last week, I proudly watched a kindergarten promotion, which included many of my previous TK students from my student teaching year. Seeing their growth academically, and how much confidence they have gained in themselves and their identities, is another reason why I continue to pursue education. In many ways, their growth reflects my own. And knowing that I contributed a small part to my former and current scholars’ successes, as they flourish in their own ways, brings me a surge of pride.

The programs at Aspire are happening at scale, with more than 36 schools serving more than 15,400 students across California. Not only did my residency program get me into the classroom, it’s played a role in keeping me there. We need more effective residency programs, and this can serve as a model for retaining teachers in California.

•••

Annika Emmanuelle Mendoza teaches transitional kindergarten at Aspire Richmond Technology Academy in Richmond.

The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.

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25/05/2025
How California can help teachers deliver ‘whole child education’
Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

California’s educators are drowning in a sea of well-intentioned but fragmented statewide initiatives. It’s time for a unified approach.

In California, we often hear that our education system is designed to “support the whole child.” This language is found in the California Department of Education’s organizing framework and sprinkled throughout the state’s many education initiatives, including Community Schools, Expanded Learning, and Multi-Tiered System of Support. This commitment to whole-child development ought to come as good news, but because the state and its agents haven’t been clear or consistent about what they mean by “whole child,” or what an educator needs to do to support the whole child, it often leads to confusion and frustration instead.

This lack of clarity means that educators in classrooms, schools and districts feel overwhelmed by all the new, seemingly separate programs and initiatives the state asks them to implement. They respond to different funding requests, fill out various program plans and reports, and attend and provide different trainings for all of these initiatives, each one feeling like “one more thing,” all while trying to manage their core teaching responsibilities and engage students effectively.

Mai Xi Lee, social and emotional learning (SEL) director at the Sacramento County Office of Education, captured this frustration well: “We’re doing bits and pieces of the same work, but calling them different things. We create these arbitrary structures defining what we do — this is SEL, PBIS, MTSS, etc. We get locked into language that we, unfortunately, as an educational system, have put in place.”

Here’s the missed opportunity: There actually are clear descriptions of whole-child education and whole-child practices already embedded within each of the initiatives. A recent report from the Center for Whole-Child Education details specifically how these practices show up in the initiatives. It uses the guiding principles for equitable whole-child design, created by the Learning Policy Institute and collaborating organizations as part of the Science of Learning and Development Alliance, to define whole-child practices that are based on research.

State leaders and administrators can increase alignment and reduce stress among already-stressed educators by communicating more clearly and intentionally about the existing alignment. The five Guiding Principles provide a simple way to define what is meant by whole-child education. Young people learn best when they experience the following in an integrated way:
- Positive relationships with adults and peers
- Environments filled with safety and belonging
- Rich, engaging learning opportunities
- Intentional development of skills, habits and mindsets
- Additional integrated supports when needed
If state education leaders and administrators — who already reference “the whole child” throughout their efforts — would agree on and reference specific practices, such as these Guiding Principles, the increased clarity could cascade through the system. With consistent language from the state, then staff in county offices of education, district leaders and site administrators would better understand and be able to communicate specifically what a “whole-child” approach entails and how these principles are in fact shared across initiatives. For example, teachers would know that their work to develop positive relationships with students and create environments filled with safety and belonging is actually part of Social-Emotional Learning, Positive Behavioral Intervention Systems, Multi-Tiered System of Support, and Community Schools. In practice, these aren’t separate or siloed concepts or “one more thing” educators have to do — they are good teaching, creating the conditions in which students learn, grow and thrive.

The easy win here is for state leaders to agree on a short description of what they mean when they say “whole-child” and hew to that definition consistently and intentionally in guiding documents about different programs, strategies and initiatives. To reach consensus, a committee or task force of key leaders and staff who work on education initiatives could review the existing whole-child frameworks and their own guiding documents to define their shared language. This approach would clarify the state’s “whole-child” vision and provide consistent guidance about what educators should do to support young people, no matter what initiative they are working on.

Statewide clarity would be a huge relief to the thousands of educators who are doing their best every day to bring high quality teaching to their students, and who desperately need tools and systems that make their work easier, not more confusing.

•••

Katie Brackenridge is a consultant working with districts and county offices of education to plan and implement coherent whole-child practices.

The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
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24/05/2025
Biden immigration order could help thousands of California children

A woman holds a placard saying “No human is illegal” during an August 7, 2023, march on the Golden Gate Bridge.

Credit: Michael Ho Wai Lee / SOPA Images/Sipa USA

Tens of thousands of children in California stand to benefit from a new executive order by the Biden administration that would provide a pathway to citizenship for their parents.

Advocates said the new program will improve children’s financial security, physical health, mental health and will help them stay focused in school.

Biden announced in June a new program that will allow undocumented immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens to apply for permanent residency without returning to their home countries, if they have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years and have no criminal record. In the past, undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens could apply for permanent residency, but they had to return to their home countries to finalize the process and could be barred from the U.S. for up to 10 years. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin accepting applications in August.

The Department of Homeland Security estimates that about 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens and 50,000 children of applicants who are stepchildren of U.S. citizens will be eligible for the new program nationwide. About 120,000 spouses of U.S. citizens will be eligible for the program in California, according to an analysis by the organization FWD.us of data from the 2022 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Many of those eligible likely have children. An estimated 1 in 10 children in California have at least one undocumented parent, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. It is not clear how many of them also have a U.S. citizen parent.

“When this was announced, it was like a huge sigh of relief,” said Mayra Alvarez, president of The Children’s Partnership, a nonprofit children’s advocacy organization based in Los Angeles. “The opportunity that families are going to be able to stay together as they apply for permanent residency is a direct commitment to child well-being. It’s an acknowledgment that parents and caregivers are critical to children’s healthy development.”

Some research shows that the fear of deportation of a parent or caregiver impacts children’s ability to do well in school.

“Absenteeism, repeating a grade and dropping out are all more likely” for children who have an undocumented parent, said Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, associate professor of education at UC Santa Barbara. She added that undocumented parents are also less likely to apply for public programs for which their U.S. citizen children are eligible, like Head Start, food stamps and public health insurance.

Modesto resident Mirna Cisneros, whose husband and three children are U.S. citizens, said she was elated when she found out about the new policy.

“Imagine, I even cried when I found out,” Cisneros said in Spanish. Still, she said she won’t truly believe it until she is actually able to apply for permanent residency.

Cisneros came to the U.S. from Mexico in 1999, when she was 17. She met her husband in Florida, and later moved with him to California. Though her husband is a U.S. citizen, she has not been able to obtain permanent residency through him. She was going to apply, but stopped the process after realizing that she would have to return to Mexico and might have to stay there for 10 years.

Cisneros said her three children, who are 17, 16 and 11 years old and are also U.S. citizens, have told her many times they are afraid she will be deported. She said her middle son told her, “’Mamá, I’m always thinking about what will happen if they grab you and take you to Mexico. I’m going to miss you. What will happen if we can’t see you?’”

If she is able to get permanent residency, she said, it would allow her to work in better-paying jobs to help support her family. She currently bakes and decorates cakes from her home.

Being able to apply for permanent residency would also give her children more flexibility and freedom to choose where they want to attend college, Cisneros said. Her oldest daughter is set to graduate from high school next year and has told her she wants to attend college out of state, in Florida, but because Cisneros avoids traveling by plane because of her immigration status, her daughter has been planning to give up that dream to attend school closer to home.

“We know that as soon as they’re able to get a work permit and have the stability of knowing that they’re not going to be deported, that parent will be able to access better employment. That will mean better salaries, better types of jobs that allow parents to be more engaged in their children’s schooling, and that’s going to lead to mental and physical health benefits for parents and children,” said Wendy Cervantes, director of immigration and immigrant families at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). The nonprofit organization was one of two dozen groups that sent a letter to the Biden administration in May asking for the change in policy.

Cervantes pointed to research about how children benefited when their parents received work permits and protection from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, introduced by then-President Barack Obama in 2012 that has allowed hundreds of thousands of people who were brought to the United States as children to temporarily remain in the country and obtain work permits. In one study, children whose mothers were eligible for the deferral program had 50% fewer diagnoses of adjustment and anxiety disorders.

However, Sattin-Bajaj expressed concern that many immigrants may be hesitant to apply because of the upcoming presidential election and the uncertainty of whether such a policy would be maintained under a new administration, particularly if led by former President Donald Trump.

“I don’t have a lot of confidence that there’s euphoria right now, because things move so slowly, and it feels like a storm is brewing,” said Sattin-Bajaj.

Top Republican leaders have rejected the program. Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign national press secretary, issued a statement saying, “Biden only cares about one thing — power — and that’s why he is giving mass amnesty and citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegals who he knows will ultimately vote for him and the Open Border Democrat Party.”

Those who qualify for the new program would not be able to vote until they receive citizenship, and they would not be able to apply for citizenship until three years after they get permanent residency.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson issued a statement saying he expects the program to be challenged in court and accused President Joe Biden of trying to “play both sides.”

“The President may think our homeland security is some kind of game that he can try to use for political points, but Americans know this amnesty plan will only incentivize more illegal immigration and endanger Americans,” Johnson said.

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20/05/2025