CPS should work to prevent future attendance drops due to immigration enforcement, community groups say

A coalition of community groups and a parent advocacy organization are urging Chicago Public Schools to take steps now to prevent attendance declines should there be another surge in federal immigration enforcement.

Among the things they are asking for: More frequent updates about attendance trends and designated safe spaces where students and parents can retreat should they encounter a threat while going to or from school.

“So much was needed for our families that we were not prepared for,” said Ana Lorenzana of the Northwest Center in Belmont Cragin, who spoke Wednesday during a virtual briefing on a report that her organization and several others worked to produce.

It is unclear whether President Donald Trump will ramp up the number of agents in Chicago and employ the kind of aggressive tactics that ravaged immigrant communities with fear this past fall. For now, there are no signs of a spring surge, as these tactics are under scrutiny and top officials, including U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, are no longer in their positions.

But if it does happen, the school system needs to be ready, unlike in the fall when the response was, according to the report, “uneven, fragile, and unsustainable.”

“The good news is that we have time to prepare,”said Daniel Anello, chief executive director of the parent advocacy organization Kids First Chicago, which spearheaded the report. “I think the bad news is we don't have too much time to prepare, given where we are, and we really need to get organized.”

Kids First Chicago partnered with the Coalition for Authentic Community Engagement, a group that includes the pastors of prominent Black churches and organizations that serve or represent many of the city’s immigrant communities, including Chinese Americans and Middle Eastern refugees.

CPS officials said they appreciate the report’s focus on collaboration and will evaluate its recommendations.

“We remain committed to working alongside all partners to strengthen our practices and ensure educators and students can thrive in a secure environment,” a CPS spokesperson wrote in a statement.

While CPS has regularly stated that overall attendance did not suffer much this fall, the report’s authors reached a conclusion similar to a WBEZ and Sun-Times analysis earlier this school year: There were spikes in absenteeism on particular days and weeks.

Higher-than-usual absenteeism among English Language Learners was a particular problem, the group found. In the seventh week of school, 3,000 more English Language Learners stayed home, compared to previous years, they estimated.

Marlon Henriquez, principal of Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy, a magnet school in the Southwest Side neighborhood of Brighton Park, said once the federal enforcement activity died down, attendance bounced back at the elementary school.

“Our families want to come to school,” he said. “That is very clear.”

But attendance among high school students who are English Language Learners has not fully rebounded, Anello said. He said “there’s more work to be done” to re-engage those students.

The report lays out several recommendations, including prioritizing getting support to communities where there has been a lot of immigration enforcement and, consequently, high absenteeism.

In these communities especially, the report calls for CPS to publish weekly attendance reports so issues are spotted more quickly.

The report’s authors say principals and other top staff should get rapid response training and schools should have an arrival and dismissal team with a designated leader who can make sure a protocol is followed when there are threats of federal agents nearby.

Kids First and the community groups also want CPS to do more to get students to school. They point out that communities stepped up this fall, providing walking school buses, carpools and neighborhood watches. But they say the district needs a more coordinated approach.

Henriquez said where he lives on the North Side, a lot of residents came out to keep watch over children as they went to and from school. But Gunsaulus is in an area filled with immigrants and residents who were too scared to stand outside and be those eyes and ears.

“Getting to school and leaving school, that's something that's out of our sphere of control,” he said. “Having individuals present, opening doors, saying good morning, saying goodbye, being a familiar happy face, would make a huge impact in the community of Gunsaulus.”

The groups say CPS should undo recent cuts to the Safe Passage program, which posts people on corners to watch students go to and from school, and pilot a transportation program that could be used during surges. That could include working with trusted community organizations to shuttle students to school or expanding bus routes, the report says.

The groups also suggest that school safety committees made up of teachers and other staff be paired with groups of parents who want to be involved.

Finally, they want CPS to step up its support for students impacted by federal immigration activity. They say CPS should expand mental health services and refer students for food and economic support “so temporary fear does not create long-term academic harm.”

They also say CPS should make sure students have laptops and a reliable internet connection to allow for some remote learning or tutoring if individual students are facing a real safety risk to come to school in person.