The shift is visible in places like Chelsea, Massachusetts, a city outside Boston that has long been a destination for new immigrants.
The shift is visible in places like Chelsea, Massachusetts, a city outside Boston that has long been a destination for new immigrants.
From Miami to San Diego, schools around the U.S. are seeing big drops in enrollment of students from immigrant families.
In some cases, parents have been deported or voluntarily returned to their home countries, driven out by President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Others have moved elsewhere inside the U.S.
In many school systems, the biggest factor is that far fewer families are coming from other countries. As fewer people cross the U.S. border, administrators in small towns and big cities alike are reporting fewer newcomer students than usual.
In Miami-Dade County Public Schools, about 2,550 students have entered the district from another country so far this school year — down from nearly 14,000 last year, and more than 20,000 the year before that. School board member Luisa Santos, who attended district schools herself as a young immigrant, said the trend is “a sad reality.”
“I was one of those arrivals when I was 8 years old,” Santos said. “And this country and our public schools — I’ll never get tired of saying it — gave me everything.”
Collectively, the enrollment declines in Miami-Dade erased about $70 million from the district’s annual budget, forcing administrators to scramble to cover the unexpected shortfall.
The drops in immigrant students add to strains on enrollment at many traditional public schools, which have seen overall numbers dip due to demographic changes and students opting for alternatives like private schools and homeschooling. Despite needs for English instruction and social supports, the newcomers in some districts have helped to buoy enrollment and bring critical per-pupil funding in recent years.
In northern Alabama, Albertville City Schools Superintendent Bart Reeves has seen the local economy grow along with its Hispanic population, which for decades has been drawn by the area’s poultry processing plants. Albertville soon will be getting its first Target store, a sign of the community’s growing prosperity.
Reeves’ district is home to one of Alabama’s largest Hispanic student populations, with about 60% identifying as Hispanic. But Reeves said the district’s newcomer academy at a local high school hasn’t been enrolling any new students.
