An estimated 700,000 undocumented students can now apply for a temporary reprieve from deportation – under President Obama’s executive order, Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA), issued back in June. Under this action, children of undocumented residents, if they meet certain criteria and do not present a risk to national security or public safety, can request relief from deportation proceedings, and apply for work authorization for a renewable period of two years.

With the school year now underway, educators have the opportunity to help students learn about eligibility requirements and help identify groups that can provide assistance with the application process.

United We Dream, with assistance from the National Education Association (NEA), recently released a brief, easy-to-read guide for teachers to help eligible students. The guide defines DACA, provides general information about ways teachers can help undocumented students and the specific steps they can take in assisting students through the deportation deferment application process.

The DREAM Act, which creates a pathway to citizenship for qualified children of undocumented residents, has been repeatedly blocked by GOP lawmakers in both houses of Congress. So for hundreds of thousands of “DREAMers,” the importance of DACA cannot be overstated.

The National Education Association believes DACA makes the nation’s immigration policy more fair, more efficient, and more just – specifically for certain young people who are low enforcement priorities. While it is not a permanent fix, until Congress passes the DREAM Act, DACA will lift the cloud of deportation from the lives of many young people across the nation.

NEA has taken a prominent role in helping students who qualify to apply for deferment, partnering with legal and activist groups like United We Dream to provide the necessary assistance to these students, their families and communities.

On the campus of Northern Virginia Community College recently, trained NEA and United We Dream volunteers and a group of volunteer attorneys held a four-hour clinic to help students with the application process.

“NEA members work with these students every day – among them are class valedictorians, straight-A students, and idealistic youth committed to bettering their communities,” said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. “We celebrate our students’ triumphs and provide support to them to overcome challenges. Adjusting the Department of Homeland Security’s deportation practices will allow so many talented young Americans to live with the peace of mind that they will be able to fulfill their dreams, thus enriching the nation culturally and economically.”

NEA/Own the Dream Back to School Guide for Educators 

While the number of undocumented immigrants in the country has risen to over 11.1 million people, the stigma associated with having an undocumented status affects a wider range of Americans than previously thought—and it’s an issue that threatens the academic success of many students in our schools.

In their recently released report “Legal Violence: How Immigration Enforcement Affects Families, Schools, and Workplaces,” authors Cecilia Menjívar and Leisy Abrego find that the current culture of immigration enforcement creates a sense of fear and despondency that affects the community as a whole. The study is the culmination of 10 years of meticulous research, as well as over 200 in-depth interviews and surveys that explore how the consequences of increased enforcement flow through the communities where immigrants live, work, and learn. The report was released last week in tandem with a panel discussion on the subject at the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC.

“We argue that the fear created by this enforcement—both real and perceived—creates the conditions for what we call ‘legal violence,’ harming immigrant incorporation into the United States,” the report summary says.

Menjivar’s and Abrego’s findings point to a system of enforcement that undermines the ability of immigrants to effectively integrate into American society. With increasingly harsher laws meant to push undocumented workers to “self-deport,” immigrants are seeing their already depleted opportunities dry up further as fears of detention and deportation become the new norms.

These perpetual fears of discovery limit the opportunities for undocumented workers and their children, many of whom were born in the United States but must still bear the stigma associated with “illegal” immigration. The report finds that the communities surrounding undocumented immigrants are also heavily influenced by immigration enforcement in the places where documented and undocumented peoples mix. In schools across the country, students who come from families with an undocumented background feel that they cannot achieve as much as their peers because of their status.

“In the schools, legal violence comes in the form of a stigma associated with an undocumented status,” says Menjívar. “We see school-age children not having incentives to do well in school, and even dropping out because there is really no future for them beyond 12^th grade.”

With deportation and detention threatening to break up families because of their legal statuses, many immigrant students face strained relationships with their family members and little hope for a better life of their own outside of school. Often, the shame of an undocumented status makes it difficult for them to approach any of their educators at school for help.

“Many students expressed the mental—and sometimes physical—distress they experienced whenever they disclosed their status to a new school official,” the report says. “Unsure about teachers’ and counselors’ stances on immigration, they worried about being publicly ridiculed and targeted.”

While the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Plyler v. Doe granted undocumented and U.S. born immigrant students the right to attend schools with their peers, the push to enforce hard-line immigration laws marginalizes these students into a separate category than their peers. Even with the same school resources available to them, students with undocumented legal statuses are confined to a narrow set of opportunities school.

“Our schools certainly don’t train our young people to be undocumented immigrants,” says Roberto Gonzales, Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Administration. “But, many of them find once they leave school that their range of options are as narrowly circumscribed as their parents, and they must put aside aspirations and expectations and learn how to survive in low wage job markets.”

The report calls on Congress and the Obama Administration to address the fears and negative consequences associated with immigration enforcement, as well as to defend the rights of all its peoples equally. Only a comprehensive approach to immigration reform will achieve any real improvements, and Menjivar and Abrego urge the government to remain vigilant in its quest to improve the lives of all Americans, whether they are documented or undocumented.

“Simply put, when everyone living in the United States is able to fully integrate, our communities are better off.”

By Félix Pérez

Sensible, fair and comprehensive immigration reform for millions of students and their families appears to be closer to reality than at any time in recent history. President Barack Obama added to the growing momentum in Congress yesterday when he addressed the issue before hundreds of students, educators, parents, business owners, and community and elected officials gathered at El Sol High School in Las Vegas, Nevada.

President Obama’s remarks came on the heels of a legislative blueprint released Monday by a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators — four Republicans and four Democrats — that would overhaul the nation’s immigration system, including carving out a faster path to citizenship for students and young immigrants who came here as children and reforming the family reunification process. Both Obama and the “Gang of Eight” agree that a reformed pathway to citizenship must be coupled with stronger enforcement.

Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, pledged the NEA’s support in working with President Obama. “As educators, we have witnessed for far too long the impact that the current immigration system has had on our students, their families, and our communities. We join the growing chorus of voices calling on lawmakers to create a common-sense immigration process for aspiring Americans, one that includes a roadmap for new Americans to become citizens,” Van Roekel said.

Read the Full Story at NEA Education Votes

All across the United States, undocumented students are forced to suffer in silence because of the constant fear of being deported from the only country that they know. They’re our neighbors, our friends, our students, and our future—and now some are getting a chance to tell their stories through a Salt Lake City-based photo exhibit documenting their struggles.

“There was so much stereotyping about undocumented immigrants, and I thought if people understood the stories and knew these kids, they might think differently,” says Annie Brewer, a social worker in the Salt Lake City School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. Looking for a platform to highlight their struggles, Brewer decided to produce a photo exhibit called “DREAMers: Living in the Shadow of Hope.”

Brewer was frustrated by the lack of opportunities that she saw available for undocumented students in her school district, so she decided that the only way to change public opinion was to give a voice to these otherwise voiceless students. She had seen a photo exhibit on refugees that highlighted their personal stories, and she wondered why the same idea couldn’t be extended to undocumented students.

“I thought, ‘why can’t we do the same thing with these undocumented kids?’”  Brewer says. “I think generally the public just does not really understand the situation.”

After spending more than a year researching the topic and reaching out to different organizations, Brewer was finally put in contact with Lynn Hoffman-Brouse, a professional photographer living in Salt Lake City. Hoffman-Brouse had been a high school teacher for nine years before catching the photography bug, and her interest in non-profit, activist-based photojournalism drew her to Brewer’s idea.

The pair started by approaching students that Brewer knew, mindful of the legalities associated with their project. Students were explained the risks involved, and Brewer and Hoffman-Brouse were careful to protect the students from any potential consequences. But the students were eager to participate, and soon a steady stream of volunteers wanted the opportunity to share stories and reflections.

“One of the things we talked about was the idea of students trying to take charge of their destiny,” says Hoffman-Brouse. “They have this feeling of powerlessness because they’re undocumented and they have this issue hanging over them. Doing this project was a way for them to take control of the issue a little bit.”

In order to preserve their identities, Hoffman-Brouse had the students cover their faces in whatever pose they chose while she photographed them. The students would choose the picture they wanted in the exhibit and then write up a handwritten personal response that was geared towards interpreting the image they selected. Many of the responses showed students who were struggling to comprehend why they were being labeled as criminals by some of the American public.

“You miss something when you can’t look into somebody’s eyes when you’re looking at a portrait, so I wanted to be sure that people saw these kids as real kids who thought about this a lot and were serious about their future,” says Hoffman-Brouse.

Brewer interviewed all 35 of the students who were photographed and wrote up detailed descriptions about their shared experiences. To further protect their identities, Brewer and Hoffman-Brouse made sure that students’ stories didn’t correspond to their portraits, which created a tapestry of similar, yet wholly unique, vignettes of their personal struggles that were interspersed throughout the exhibit. For many of the students, speaking with Brewer was the first opportunity they had to openly describe their lives as undocumented immigrants.

“It was emotional for a lot of them when we talked,” says Brewer. “Many of them had been unable to sit down and share their stories with anyone.”

The “DREAMers: Living in the Shadow of Hope” exhibit first premiered in June 2010 at the Salt Lake City Main Library, and over the next several years it’s been featured at a variety of local schools, universities, art galleries, libraries and community centers in the Salt Lake City area.  The hope is to keep the exhibit circulating throughout Salt Lake City and the country until undocumented students receive equal access to an uninhibited future.

Finishing the photo exhibit has not slowed Brewer’s commitment to fighting for undocumented students.  In collaboration with the Salt Lake City School District and its Equity Department, Brewer has worked with specialists from Social Studies and Fine Arts courses to create a curriculum guide that uses the photo exhibit as a jumping off point into a large discussion about immigration. She’s also started a non-profit, Educational Opportunities for Utah’s Children, to help provide scholarship money to undocumented students. This past year, Brewer’s organization received a $20,000 award from the Mexican government to provide scholarship money for higher education opportunities for undocumented students from Mexico.

Through it all, Brewer has remained steadfast in her resolve to provide a better future for undocumented students. Her advocacy recently earned her a “Cesar Chavez Peace and Justice Award” from the Utah chapter of the National Council of La Raza, and she hopes that her continuing efforts will help lead to meaningful changes for undocumented students in the future.

“This is for so many of them the only country they know,” Brewer says. “They’ve grown here, they’ve gone to school here, they’ve learned the language, they’ve excelled. It wasn’t a choice they made to come here, so it just seems ridiculous that there shouldn’t be a way for them to achieve citizenship.”

Sign the petition to help make comprehensive immigration reform a reality for students and their families.

More information about “DREAMers: Living in the Shadow of Hope

Photos: Lynn Hoffman-Brouse

Carlos Padilla crossed the border between Mexico and the United States on foot when he was only two years old. He was too young to remember the journey, but has heard his mother tell the story of how he and his brother, then six, and his four-year-old sister made the journey from Tijuana to Los Angeles.

The Padilla family did not have documentation to reside in the country legally, so for years they lived in the shadows of society familiar to many undocumented immigrants. Padilla first became aware of exactly how his immigration status affected him when he began looking at college applications in his sophomore year of high school.

“When the Social Security number question came up, I knew that was not my reality,” Padilla said. Without being able to apply for financial aid he began to see college as an unobtainable goal. “I realized that I could only pursue my education so far, there was always going to be a wall between me and my dream and that hurt.”

Padilla, now 21, and a student at the University of Washington, is currently a summer intern at the National Education Association. Recently, he and his colleague, David Liendo, shared their powerful stories to show support for comprehensive immigration reform and passage of the DREAM Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented high-school graduates and GED recipients who meet various requirements, including the completion of at least two years of college or four years of military service.

Padilla and Liendo came to Washington D.C., as participants in the Dream Summer National Internship Program, sponsored by the University of California Los Angeles.

“NEA is especially focused on expanding and passing the DREAM Act, family unity and citizenship,” said Rocío Inclán of NEA’s Human and Civil Rights department. “We focus on these three issues because we know they directly impact schools, school communities, our members and their students and their families.”

Liendo, 22, also spoke about the struggles he faced due to his immigration status and chokes up when describing how he hasn’t seen his family since he left Bolivia seven years ago. Liendo came to the U.S. on a 6-month visa, but told his parents he wanted to stay and pursue his education while living with relatives. Liendo’s parents agreed, but did not apply for any type of legal status on his behalf. He is now a student at Cornell University and said he also did not fully understand what it meant to be undocumented until he started preparing for college.

“I was naïve and never thought being undocumented would affect me in the long run,” Liendo said. “But I was willing to do anything to stay here and continue my education.”

Padilla and Liendo currently have temporary permission to remain in the U.S. through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals initiative. It allows undocumented youth to remain in the country for two years and temporarily eliminates the possibility of deportation for many who would qualify for the DREAM Act.

For the past several years, Congress has struggled to reach an agreement on immigration reform or the DREAM Act. Most recently, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act was passed by a bipartisan majority in the Senate in June. The bill would put “DREAMers” on an accelerated path to citizenship after five years of provisional status.

The bill, however, faces an uphill struggle in the House of Representatives, where it faces unified GOP opposition.  Even as gridlock persists on Capitol Hill, DREAMers like Padilla and Liendo continue to advocate and organize by forming clubs or organizations at their schools or universities and in their communities. DREAMers want to put a face to the immigration debate by sharing their stories and spearheading rallies and sit-ins. Operation Butterfly was one such imitative where three young people, including Padilla, were reunited with their mothers at the border after years of estrangement, crying and hugging through the fence. Padilla’s mother left the U.S. several years ago to attend her brother’s funeral and has not been able to return.

“We are trying to break a system that builds fear in our community, and the border represents that fear,” Padilla said. “The only way we can challenge fear is by showing bravery. I am undocumented, unashamed and unafraid.”

Take Action Today – Tell the House of Representatives to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

Visit Education Votes for the latest news on immigration reform

Thousands of people gathered on the National Mall on Tuesday to urge Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill. The March and Rally for Immigrant Dignity and Respect attracted activists from across the country who called on the House of Representatives to bring a bill already approved by the Senate to the floor for a vote. The Border, Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act (H.R. 15) creates a realistic path to citizenship for all the aspiring Americans- including millions of students – who call the United States home and preserves the unity of families.

NEA Executive Director John Stocks addressed the rally. “We advocate on behalf of the children that sit in our classrooms every day – these are our students, the children who educators know by name and by neighborhood and by family. Forcing them to live in the shadows of society because of their legal status is wrong,” said Stocks.

After the protest, Stocks, along with 200 other religious, civil, and community leaders were arrested in the largest civil disobedience action for immigration reform. Ten members of Congres were also arrested, including civil rights legend John Lewis (D-Ga.).

Video: The National Education Association is Standing Up and Saying ‘No More’

Take Action Today – Urge your Representative to co-sponsor and support passage of H.R. 15, comprehensive immigration reform.

Ten years ago, Aura Menjivar Lara made the long and harrowing trek from El Salvador to the U.S. She left her homeland—riddled with violence and despair—with dreams of a better life. Today, she wears an ankle monitor, which is usually reserved for convicted criminals on parole, fears deportation and the loss of her son, 7, to a shelter. Menjivar is part of an organization called DREAMERs’ Moms, a non-profit organization of women and mothers who advocate for comprehensive immigration reform that includes keeping families together.

The mother of one shared her story during the National Education Association’s Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) clinic on August 23. NEA, in partnership with DC DREAM, hosted the first ever DACA clinic in Washington, D.C. for area residents.

The immigration policy that helps DREAMer-eligible students, their families, and communities with temporary relief from deportation proceedings, as well as apply for renewable work permits, went into effect two years ago, impacting an estimated 700,000 students.

The relief expires this month, however, through the NEA-DC DREAM partnership, nearly a dozen attorneys volunteered to help run the clinic and assist students and their families with the renewal process, and help new applicants apply for work authorization and the temporary right to stay in the U.S.

Becky Pringle, NEA’s vice-president elect, welcomed the group to the clinic and offered praise to thank those who volunteered, explaining that teachers and educators can often see the fear of undocumented students who are too afraid to speak. “But we also see their hope, creativity, and brilliance. We see their humanity, and because we know we have been called to this role and responsibility, we are stepping up to do this work. We know we cannot do it alone and that’s why I appreciate you for stepping up…and helping our students and their families.”

Jose Díaz, executive director of DC DREAM says, “We’re hopeful that something will happen soon to the immigration system so we don’t have to do temporary fixes—we need something more permanent.”

“Something,” may be coming soon, as President Barack Obama is preparing to issue an executive order that could change immigration polices. Nothing concrete has come from the White House, yet.

Gaby Pacheco, a DREAMER herself, is the program director for The DREAM.US, which provides college scholarships to highly motivated DREAMers who, without financial aid, cannot afford a college education that could lead to participation in the U.S. workforce.

NEA Vice President-Elect Becky Pringle (left) with DREAMer-eligible students and their families.

She has been a long-time advocate for comprehensive immigration reform and hopes that the executive order is expansive enough to cover administrative relief, which offers various forms of temporary reprieve from deportation without granting legal immigration status, as well as other measures.

“The President has the duty and the power to make the lives of immigrants in this country better,” she says. “We believe the president’s executive order has to carry forward affirmative relief for people, giving them access to work permits and relief from deportation. At the same time, there has to be changes to the way we work on immigration. We, unfortunately, have paid too much attention to enforcement,” adding that there are other elements of immigration reform that can lead to meaningful changes.

One change, Pacheco says, is not to double count green cards. The law currently counts dependents under the numerical limit of 140,000. Immigration advocates say that dependents not count, which could double the number of available green cards.

With the school year now underway, educators have the opportunity to help students learn about eligibility requirements and help identify groups that can provide assistance with the application process. To help, download a brief, easy-to-read guide for teachers to help eligible students. The guide defines DACA, offers general information about ways educators can help undocumented students, and the specific steps they can take in assisting students through the deportation deferment application process.

For more information visit United We Dream and We Own the Dream.

Twenty years ago next month, California voters approved Proposition  187, the infamous state ballot initiative that was designed to cut off immigrants’ access to social services, including health care and public education. The courts would strike down most of the law’s provisions (the state did not have the right to legislate immigration law or access to public benefits), but the impact of Proposition 187 has endured.  While it is true that other states-notably Arizona and Alabama-have targeted immigrant populations with punitive laws, Prop 187 also triggered a powerful political awakening among the nation’s burgeoning Latino population.

On Oct. 9, National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García and leaders from the Latino Victory Foundation, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Causa, and the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA) gathered in Arizona to mobilize Latino voters to fight anti-immigrant efforts and increase voter participation during the November mid-term elections.

“It’s so clear, even though we are commemorating the 20^th anniversary of this wakeup call of Prop 187 in California, the strategy of those who are fighting immigrants is fear, they will take whatever issue that will make people tremble.” Eskelsen GarcÍa said  “We have a strategy too; it’s hope. We will prevail because hope is stronger than fear.”

“We are here to recognize the implications that these horrible pieces of legislations have in our community,” explained Hector Sanchez, President of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA) and Labor Council for Latin American Advancements (LCLAA). “To propose and to continue organizing, and to select good people in Congress to have better voices overall.”

Andrea Miller, executive director of Causa, a civil rights organization in Oregon, addressed the current political fight in her state over Measure 88. Earlier this year, Oregon passed a bill with bipartisan support granting undocumented immigrants driver licenses, or “driver cards,” with limited privileges. Before the law could take effect, however, a small anti-immigrant group, was able to collect enough signatures to place the law on a statewide referendum in November.

“Right now Latino families are in the electoral battle of our lives,” Miller explained. “Sixty percent of Latinos families live in mix immigration status households… (Measure 88) not only impacts undocumented mother and fathers; it impacts their children and their families. This will allow for the basic needs of undocumented families to become mobile.”  The card would not allow identification for international travel and to vote, but is designed to carry out day-to-day activities like driving to work, grocery shopping, and going to church.

Thomas Saenz, president of MALDEF labeled anti-immigration laws “boomerang laws,” because, in the long run, they will come back and hurt politicians that promote them.

“We will react to this in a positive way, to this kind of targeting. The (Latino) community will step forward and accelerate our involvement, accelerate our civic participation to change politics not just in California, not just in Arizona, but across the country,” Saenz declared. “We are here and proud to join in this commemoration of the warning and promise of Proposition 187, and the political change that it catalyzed.”

Nearly 1,500 miles separate Honduras and Texas—a little more than three hours by plane, and 40 hours by car. For 14-year-old Manolo (his name has been changed to protect his identity), the journey took three weeks—by foot, bus, and train—and was made possible after his family paid a coyote, someone who illegally helps migrants make the treacherous journey north.

Manolo was just one of many Central American kids who made the trek north in 2011. U.S. Border Patrol data indicates that more than 16,000 unaccompanied minors from there, Mexico, and other countries were detained at the U.S.-Mexico border that year. The dramatic number of children trying to cross the Southwestern border escalates yearly. In 2013, more than 38,000 children were apprehended.

By September 2014, more than 68,000 unaccompanied minors had been detained, and the U.S. faced a humanitarian crisis. Three quarters of the children were from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Many of them were escaping high poverty and unspeakable violence: rape, murder, torture, extortion, and forced gang recruitment. For others, like Manolo, the trek was made out of a desire to reunite with family after a decade of separation.

The Journey

For 13 years Manolo had no memory of his father. Pushed by violence and poverty toward the U.S., he left Honduras when his son was a year old. Still, Manolo was happy. He lived with his mother, who remarried, and two younger siblings. He went to school, church, and visited with friends.

By the time Manolo finished ninth grade, the urge to meet his father was overwhelming. During the winter of 2011 he took off toward the U.S. He carried his father’s promise of a good education and a better life.

But the road to his father was long and cruel. The teenager crossed five states in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. Along the way, he endured the bitter cold of winter and starvation. With no safe house along the way, Manolo slept in the forest.

It was hard, he says, and dangerous. Snakes and wild pigs threatened his passage. But he continued. “I wanted to meet my dad and I was thinking about a better life,” says the thoughtful teenager who pauses between phrases. He also wanted to help his mother back home and make her life easier. “That’s what gave me the strength to get here,” he says today.

The Other Side

Confused and afraid, Manolo finally reached Texas.

He wondered if he had even made it stateside because everyone he encountered spoke Spanish. He feared capture and deportation back to Honduras—a nation reported to be the world’s most deadly.

Eventually, Manolo settled with his father in the Washington, D.C., area, which, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, took in roughly 5,000 unaccompanied minors between January and August of last year. In total, nearly 7,000 children were transferred to this area during that period. The number could be higher, since some—like Manolo—weren’t detained by border patrol agents, so they aren’t represented in government figures.

After his father produced his birth certificate and his grades from Honduras, Manolo was enrolled in high school. Six months later, trying to fit in with peers, Manolo pierced his ear. “My dad got mad and kicked me out,” he says. Manolo slept on a sofa at the home of a friend. Young, unable to speak English and jobless, he struggled. Today, the 18-year-old eleventh grader lives alone, and says teachers were his saving grace.

Educators Speak Up

A handful of educators, including Manolo’s English language learner (ELL) teacher, agreed to be interviewed for this story under the condition of anonymity (all names have been changed). They’re worried about possible repercussions for speaking up. From high school to middle school, these educators echo the same sentiment: Unaccompanied minors are assets. While politicians, government agencies, and advocates decide their fate, educators guide the students to a better life.

But some educators also face challenges. These include some administrators, who seem unsupportive, a minority of colleagues who bring personal biases into the classroom, budget cuts, and large numbers of traumatized students.

Manolo shares the story of finishing a set of hurdles during gym class. He overheard one teacher tell another: “That’s what they do best—jump fences—that’s how he got here.” The teenager was hurt.

“I know we’re not from the same country, but we need people to help us and not treat us like trash,” he says in a voice near pleading. Remembering the incident today, Manolo says he thought then, “I’ll teach him. I’m strong and better than that.”

And better he is. “He’s a good student,” says Elise, his ELL teacher, explaining that although Manolo doesn’t have a family structure supporting his academics, he manages to overcome his obstacles.

Elise teaches a range of students, including Level 1s, who speak little to no English and lack a language basis to help them function, comprehend, and respond in a general classroom setting. She was able to provide Manolo with direct reading and writing support, tutoring, care, and advocacy. In three months, she says, he was speaking “a little” English.

But Elise admits that the yearly influx of newcomers makes one-on-one instruction increasingly difficult. The 2013 – 2014 school year ended with roughly 30 Level 1 students. This school year began with nearly 25 Level 1 students. The number is expected to grow by at least 35 percent by June 2015. Neighboring school districts know how to handle the influx because they’ve been doing it longer. Elise’s high school, meanwhile, struggles.

“Some counties have newcomer centers, we don’t. The onus is on us to do everything,” she says. “We test and place the kids. We maintain their records and evaluate them for special education services. We educate and parent them—and we’re asked to do everything else the rest of the teachers in the building do, which is very unfair.”

The high school’s ELL teachers do what they can, from buying extra school supplies to getting parents into the district’s parent involvement program—an effort that provides information about conferences, grades, scheduling, and where to look for information online. Students with families in the program tend to do better, Elise says.

Fanning the Flames

But other issues plague Elise and her colleagues.

The school district has continuously eliminated ELL teaching assistants. They often help facilitate small classroom discussions or allow teachers to work one on one with students. “It’s hard to manage 24 kids in a reading Level 1 class without the help of an assistant,” Elise says.

The school district claims the assistants have been replaced with ELL teachers, but there seems to be a glitch. As Leah, a middle school ELL teacher explains, two full-time assistants were replaced with a point-five teacher at her school. “How are two full-time assistants who help teach 16 blocks equivalent to a point-five teacher who teaches three full-time blocks? It makes no sense.”

At times, newcomers face challenges from administrators. At one high school, the principal and other administrators appear unsupportive, using a tone of voice that is unsympathetic to students. Elise’s colleague, Amy, says that trust must be es- tablished from the onset to help newcomers adjust. A harsh tone is “not how you get the kids to open up, trust you, and want to go to school,” she says.

Leah thinks this mindset exists because there are not enough advocates for ELLs. “They’re seen as the blackest spot on the chart rather than ‘Hey, look!These kids are walking around with two languages,’ if we do this right. If we do this wrong, we can make them illiterate in two languages.”

The claim is supported by a 2014 NEA report that helps define “advocacy” and strengthen educators’ capacity to advocate for ELLs. Findings from “I Am an ELL Advocate” indicate a positive perception of ELLs is an imperative part of advocating for them. Recommendations from the report suggested that educators should see the students’ languages and cultures as an asset, not a deficit.

Supportive Systems

Some schools do yeoman’s work for ELLs and have systems that build students’ success. Highlands Elementary School in Osceola County, Fla., is an example. With a 49 percent Hispanic population—many of whom only speak Spanish—the school offers a dual-language program that provides morning instruction in students’ native lan- guage and English instruction in the afternoon.

Valerie Rivera, an ESOL compliance specialist for the district, oversees the program. She says that for students to successfully acquire English skills “they must be fluent in their first language.” From there, students can transition into English more quickly.

Some D.C. area schools don’t have growing pains. One U.S. history middle school teacher calls her principal extremely supportive and believes “all are welcome.” This gives students the confidence to learn in a safe environment and it empowers teachers to collaborate and find the best ways to teach them.

“We’re able to work in a cross-curricula setting, pull students out to work in small groups, modify instruction, and translate materials,” the educator says, adding that “schools new to this situation must be patient and staff must be open-minded and think outside the box.”

Though these educators shared different experiences, they all stressed the importance of professional development. None of the schools referenced in this story have received cultural competency training, including the middle school that has seen success and has the most experience with newcomers.

Elise also supports the creation of a program that would smooth the reunification of students and parents. Before rejoining a parent in the U.S., many of her students have raised themselves—some for as long as 10 years. Reunited with their parents, they don’t view the adults as authoritative figures, which can lead to behavioral issues.

New arrivals also need a good parent liaison.

In Elise’s school, that’s Carla, who works closely with counselors. Carla’s main task is working with families and with helping to validate students’ pain so they can heal from emotional wounds. Once undocumented herself, Carla fully understands that students who fled from horrible situations, or were left behind by parents, need a lot of support.

“Everyone needs to value where these students come from. They’re survivors and they want to do well. It’s important to respect them and recognize what makes them unique,” saying that “they have tal- ent that they themselves don’t recognize. We need to help them see it.”

Manolo doesn’t work with Carla because he’s a good student, and despite falling asleep with books on his chest from the exhaustion of working five nights a week plus weekends, he’s on track to receive his high school diploma in 2016.

It’s a goal he’s determined to reach, especially after his long and painful journey to the U.S., and the disappointment that followed from his brief stay with his father to the struggles to learn English and acculturate. “Having a diploma…[I] can get a better job and more money so I can help my mom,” says the teen who plans to become a gourmet chef.

Photos: Luis Gomez

In the landmark 1982 decision in Plyler v Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled all children are entitled to a public education, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. The fact that this is established law hasn’t stopped some school districts from imposing obstacles to prevent many of the approximately 770,000 undocumented school-aged children in the United States from registering for school. The scope of the efforts to block this fundamental right is the focus of a new report published by the Georgetown University Law Center’s Human Rights Institute and the Women’s Refugee Commission.

“U.S. law is clear on this point – no child in the United States should be excluded from public education,” said Mikaela Harris, a Georgetown Law student and co-author of Ensuring Every Undocumented Student Succeeds, “What we found is that that doesn’t always play out in practice.”

The researchers spent one year examining the practices and policies in school districts in Georgia, New York, but most closely in North Carolina and Texas. They interviewed government and school officials, families, and undocumented students to determine how some communities, according to the report, “have barred immigrant children from enrolling or meaningfully participating in school by creating intentional and unintentional barriers.”  In some schools, students are turned away outright; in others, they are “discouraged” from enrolling.

But, as one social service provider told the researchers, “there is a fine line between discouraging and denying enrollment.”

The recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) raids to detain and deport families who crossed the border in 2014 has fostered a climate of fear and anxiety that has prevented many children from even attempting the school enrollment process.

The families who do make this effort routinely face a wall of obstacles, ranging from delays over complicated paperwork to being turned away from classrooms as the result of a districts’ subjective – and usually erroneous – interpretations of residency requirements and state laws. Meanwhile, a lack of translation and interpretation services leave families helpless and uninformed about the enrollment process.

The researchers interviewed “Juan,” a 16-year-old who fled violence in Honduras to travel alone to Texas. Attempting to enroll, he was initially turned away by the school principal, who believed Juan would not pass the state test. Fortunately, the teenager had a community advocate by his side who could speak on his behalf. Juan was soon admitted, although he quickly discovered that the school was ill-equipped to provide the kind of one-on-one support he desperately needed.

The reluctance to enroll undocumented students out of concern that they will drag down the school’s performance on statewide standardized tests is prevalent in some of the communities profiled in the report. One 17 year-old student recounted to the researchers that she was told that she could not start school until after exams, delaying her enrollment by four weeks.

Many schools also won’t waver from overly rigid residency and guardianship requirements. And even if these requirements are met, many undocumented students who  have missed years of schooling in their home country are blocked because they are perceived as being too old. Because some districts examined in the report reward high graduation rates, school officials may be concerned that these students will “age out,” or turn 21 before graduating. Instead, they will steer students to alternative education programs, including, but not limited to, those intended for children with serious behavioral problems, even if the student in question displays no such issues. One parent, appalled at the attempt to send her child to such a program, commented, “My son is of good character and he shouldn’t have to go to a school for correctional students.”

The report offers a wide range of specific recommendations for officials at the federal, state, and district level, including proper dissemination of legal information, a wide availability of effective translation services,  and increased oversight of ICE enforcement activities. The authors also urge that states take advantage of the new flexibility in the new Every Student Succeeds Act and reshape student and teacher accountability systems to be less dependent on test scores – and therefore less likely to incentivize exclusion of undocumented students.

A significant drawback is the scarcity of adequate information and training to assist communities with enrolling these students and complying with the law. Still, the intent to discriminate is clear in many cases, and curbing these violations must be a national priority.

“Discouraging undocumented children from enrolling or otherwise discriminating against them in the public education system contradicts our country’s fundamental values of providing equal opportunity for all,” said report co-author Caitlin Callahan.

Photo: Associated Press/Lynne Sladky

Isaias Ramos (second from left) walks with classmates to a ceremony honoring the top students at Kingsbury High School  in Memphis, TN. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Connolly)

In the midst of all the rancor surrounding the debate over immigration – reaching new heights of vitriol and divisiveness in the 2016 presidential campaign season – it may be easy to forget that communities across the country, especially in their public schools, are working with many undocumented families to try to forge some path of success for their children.

Educators at Kingsbury High School in Memphis, TN., never saw Isaias Ramos as a “problem” or a “statistic”  – he’s just one of the best students they ever taught. Isaias‘ family came to this country in 2003 from Hidalgo, Mexico and settled in Memphis, where his parents would set up a small house-painting business. Isaias excelled at school, and in 2012, as he prepared for his senior year, he met Daniel Connolly, a reporter with the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Connolly, who had been covering immigration from Mexico to the American south for a decade, wanted to take a closer look at the lives of immigrant children. With the blessing of Isaias and his family and school administrators, Connolly spent the 2012-13 school year embedded in Kingsbury, tracking Isaias and some of his classmates as they navigated their way through the difficult senior year, and the educators who intervened to help them make the right choices about their future.

What began as an award-winning multimedia project for the Commercial Appeal evolved into “The Book of Isaias: A Child of Hispanic Immigrants Seeks His Own America,”  published in October by St. Martins Press. Connolly recently spoke with NEA Today about how the story of one teenager and his classmates illustrates why society must do more to help this generation of immigrant children meet their full potential.

Tell us about Memphis, specifically the changes immigration from Mexico has bought to the community and to Kingsbury High.

Daniel Connolly: In the 1950s, when Kingsbury was built, it was an all-White, segregated school. Every teacher, every student, every administrator was White in the school – everyone except probably the custodial staff. Then court-ordered busing in the 1970s came into play, and by the 1980s, the school was a mix of Black and White students. In the 1990s, we saw at Kingsbury and in Memphis generally, an increase of immigrants, from Mexico in particular.

But the type of changes I write about at this one school have taken place all across the U.S. For educators who are pretty much any school in America, their chances of teaching many students from immigrant families are much higher now obviously than they were a few decades ago.

What struck you about Isaias when you first met him?

DC: The first thing was that he was just extremely bright. But he was interesting on so many different levels. He has these quirky interests and loves music. During our first conversation, he mentioned that one of his favorite musicians was Björk and her old band the Sugarcubes. He talked about becoming a mechanical engineer or maybe a musician or continuing the house-painting business that his parents and brother were involved in.

Ultimately, however, his story embodied this combination of great potential with uncertainty how this potential would end up being developed.

With the book, I’m arguing that this great generation of children of immigrants has enormous potential. But much of it is being lost and that our society should help them develop that potential for the good not just of them and their families, but of everyone.

You were embedded at Kingsbury in the school for an entire year. How did the school help with fulfilling that potential and where did it fall short? 

DC: What went right for Isaias and other students can be boiled down to the one-on-one relationships they had with a particular staff member. These students would be taken into the guidance of someone specific at the school. In the book, I write about another student, Estevon Odria, who worked very closely with a teacher named Marion Mathis, who became his sponsor and champion. She did a tremendous amount of work to get him into college. Isaias had similar relationships. I saw this repeated in different pairings throughout the year.

Sometimes there was a failure to communicate on a mass level at Kingsbury. For example, they had College Night for educators and parents, but didn’t have a Spanish language interpreter there. Obviously there were parents who don’t speak English. So they’re at this event hearing about financial aid, for example, and can’t understand what’s being said. But Kingsbury is a big, busy school and these things can happen.

Nationally, the shortage of guidance counselors is a real problem. Kingsbury has them but that’s not the case in too many schools across the country. Teachers and others will form a relationship with a student that fills that role to some degree but that’s not enough. We need more funding for guidance counselors.

“Will Isaias got to college?” is sort of the big question of the book. Obviously policies, both at the national and state level, throw enormous obstacles in front of these kids who are undocumented. Not to give too much away about his ultimate decision, but what other factors made him so conflicted? 

DC: His immigration status and those obstacles – especially around financial aid –  played a major role, but after spending a lot of time with him, I wouldn’t say that was the defining factor. The dynamics within the family were very important. His parents had immigrated from Mexico and were talking about going back. So that would mean someone would have to run the family business. He was a crucial member of that team, so what would happen to the business if he went to college?

And throughout all this, he is in many ways living a pretty normal high school life.

DC: Right, in general he didn’t seem to worry too much about the future. That’s something fairly typical among young people. It cuts both ways. On one hand, it means that Isaias was able to enjoy life, enjoy playing in a rock band, enjoy falling in love with his girlfriend Magaly. At the same time, there were other incidents when he other students didn’t pay enough attention to details -especially when it came to college recruitment  – that really could impact their lives.

Going to college requires this ability to project yourself into the future and think of yourself as a 25 or 30-year-old. And most 16 or 17-year-olds can’t really do that. They don’t think that far ahead.

You were with him throughout the year as a reporter but it’s clear you bonded with him. How difficult was it to keep a distance? It must have been tempting to steer him in a certain direction or provide help.

DC: it was. I was surprised at how emotionally-involved I got during the project. During the school year, it was very difficult. I had a pretty solid rule that I wasn’t going to interfere with what happened in Isias’ life, his decisions. That was at times emotionally very difficult. But later, after we did the big newspaper project about him, I loosened that up a  little bit. I was willing to offer advice. That’s one of the reasons the book is in the first person, so it’s easy to disclose some of that interaction.

There’s a lot in your book that is so useful for educators, especially those at schools with large immigrant populations. What do you see as some of the top lessons they can draw to help interact with and guide these students? 

Daniel Connolly, author of “The Book of Isaias: A Child of Hispanic Immigrants Seeks his Own America”

DC: I think the biggest lesson is that these students really need educators to guide them in school. Many immigrant parents don’t know the system and don’t know how it works. If the student doesn’t have someone at school to guide them and point them in the right direction, they’re not going to get that assistance at all. It’s important to understand also that more than 90% of Hispanics under the age of 18 are citizens, but that doesn’t mean their parents know the system or can guide them any better.

Many teachers already know this, but when it comes to knowledge of the college application process, a lot of kids are not going to get that at home. The effort an educator makes can and does make a difference in people’s lives. You see how the adults at Isaias’ school change his life. The whole book is a testament to that.

What’s also important is that educators must know that these students aren’t necessarily motivated to go to college, even if they study hard and do well in school. They really just may have no context to understand the value of it. So motivation has to be fostered. It’s a major factor in coaching and leading these young people to success.

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Take Action: Learn more about how you can help change immigration policies that affect our students.

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley student Abraham Diaz Alonso, left, talks about his fear of being deported during a news conference asking University President Guy Bailey to make UTRGV into a sanctuary campus, Tuesday Dec. 6, 2016, at the campus in Edinburg, Texas. (Nathan Lambrecht/The Monitor via AP)

As the idea takes hold that college campuses should be “sanctuaries” for undocumented immigrant students, the NEA-affiliated California Faculty Association (CFA) last month adopted a resolution calling for every California State University (CSU) campuses to be a “safe zone” for students and families threatened by immigration enforcement.

Between 200,000 and 225,000 U.S. college students are undocumented immigrants, the Pew Research Center has estimated. In the 23-campus Cal State system alone, there are more than 20,000.

“CFA stands in solidarity with all our students and families in the spirit of inclusion and justice,” wrote union leaders, in the resolution that was adopted by the CFA General Assembly in March.

They’re not the only ones standing with students. During his campaign, President Trump called the federal immigration policy known as DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which temporarily protects some students from deportation, an “illegal amnesty.” Since his election, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have swept into neighborhoods and wreaked chaos in the lives of immigrant families.

In response, hundreds of colleges have announced publicly that they will support their undocumented students. Many are using the term “sanctuary,” a term that has angered some federal and state officials.

“The rhetoric of the Trump campaign was filled with threats of mass deportation and so a natural response to that was trying to find a way of expressing a refusal to cooperate with what was then described as a new deportation force,” said Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan University, a private college in Connecticut that was one of the first schools to declare itself a sanctuary campus, to The Washington Post.

Public colleges and universities have been warier to say the same, most likely because they depend on state and federal funding to operate. In December, U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) introduced the “No Funding for Sanctuary Campuses Act,” which would cut federal funds to colleges that “violate immigration laws” through their policies or practices. It also would require the Department of Homeland Security to maintain a list of sanctuary campuses.

Meanwhile, Republican state legislators are gearing up to punish state universities that would seek to protect all students, too. In response to Texas State University students who petitioned their administrators to make their campus a “sanctuary,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted that “Texas will not tolerate sanctuary campuses or cities. I will cut funding for any state campus if it establishes sanctuary status.”

Who Are Our Undocumented College Students?

What we know about these students, according to a 2015 University of California Los Angeles report, reads like a story of the American Dream:

• On average, each has lived in the U.S. for nearly 15 years, and more than 90 percent said they’d become citizens if they could.
• More than 60 percent come from families where the household income is less than $30,000 a year.
• 28 percent are majoring in STEM fields, such as computer science or pre-med, while another 10 percent are majoring in public service fields, such as education.
• They are high achievers: 86 percent at public universities are earning greater than a 3.0 GPA.

But then there’s this, which reveals the nightmare: Almost all worry constantly about deportation, and more than half said they knew personally somebody who had been deported, including parents and siblings.

“Nov. 8 shook my entire life,” said Rose Barrientos, a student at Sacramento State, which is part of the CSU system, to the Los Angeles Times. Since then, her fear of deportation is a constant companion, as well as fear of losing the two jobs that help her to pay for school, and fear for the safety of her East L.A. family.

“Yes, I’m undocumented, yes, I’m proud—but this is too much. Sharing with you that I’m undocumented is scary,” she said.

In November, the Cal State system affirmed its commitment to fostering a “safe and welcoming” community, and vowed not to help federal immigration officials “unless required by law.” But so far, their efforts have fallen short of creating the “safe zones” that students deserve.

The CFA Resolution: Do’s and Don’ts

In its resolution, which aims at creating a “safe and inviting” campus, the CFA lays out the proper conduct for university officials.

Among the things they shouldn’t do: Enable campus police officers to participate in any way with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids or detentions, or have staff assist in any way with the development of a federal registry based on any protected characteristic, such as religion or national origin. Also, no campus personnel should ask a student, or his or her family members about their status.

Among the things they should do:

• Refuse immigration agents access to campus, unless provided with a warrant signed by a state or federal judge that specifies the name of the person under arrest, as well as written authority from ICE.
• Provide legal support to immigrant students and their families.
• Offer mental-health counseling by culturally competent professionals.
• Host “Know Your Rights” trainings in appropriate languages for students and parents.
• Offer housing for students who can’t return home.
• Ensure all students, regardless of their status, are aware of opportunities for grants, scholarships, and other financial aid.

The hardline stance on immigration has struck fear and anxiety in students and their families across the U.S. They hear about “the wall” on the news or from other kids. They are told what to do if their parents don’t come home from work and who to call for help. They are aware that when someone knocks on the door they are not to answer, and they are afraid.

These fears were revealed in a recent Philadelphia workshop by a group of about 30 children of Mexican descent. They expressed their feelings in comics – a medium that the kids were already fans of and that offered a way in.

The workshop is part of an ongoing writing program of Mighty Writers, a Pennsylvania nonprofit whose mission is to help kids think and write clearly. Run by Mexican artist, writer and activist Nora Litz, the workshop was called “Illustrated Migration Stories” and the kids’ assignment, completed over seven recent Saturdays, was to tell their family’s story. Most of them focused on their immigration status and their fears about what it meant for their future.

“What’s happening with immigration right now is pretty stressful for anyone, let alone kids,” says Mighty Writers founder Tim Whitaker. “We wanted to use art to allow the kids to tell us what’s on their mind. Right away we noticed how relieved they were to verbalize this stuff. We saw them from being afraid to being more confident about who they are and how they feel about themselves and their situation. They were empowered by the process.”

Some of the comics are pictured below. If you want to participate in a workshop or want information on how to conduct one in your community, visit mightywriters.org. Find out how NEA is helping the immigrant community throughout the U.S. and learn how you can stand up for immigrant students.

AUSTIN, Texas—”Would you go?”

This is the question that silences 16-year-old Jacqui, tightens her wide smile into a thin line, and provokes a low sigh.

Her mother sits next to her—motionless—her gaze transfixed on a crack in the sidewalk.

The answer is no. Simply, reluctantly, painfully, no. If push comes to shove, and federal immigration agents deport Jacqui’s parents to Mexico, a country they left 18 years ago to find work, she would not go.

Jacqui would stay in the U.S., alone, to finish high school, go to college, and make good on her considered plans to earn a law degree. She is a citizen. They are not.

It’s a no-win situation that promises nothing but agony for millions of undocumented U.S. immigrant parents and their children.

“It is not something I like to think about,” says Jacqui quietly, closing the topic of conversation. Her mother still does not speak.

About one in 14 students, or 6.9 percent from kindergarten through twelfth grade, have at least one undocumented immigrant parent, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center report. Most are U.S.-born, American citizens, like Jacqui, while a much smaller number (1.4 percent) are undocumented themselves.

Their numbers vary widely across the U.S., from nearly 18 percent, or about one in five students, in Nevada, to 0.1 percent in West Virginia.

For the most part, their parents are like Jacqui’s. They crossed the border to find work at least a decade ago, statistics show, and then put down roots as their children grew. Jacqui’s mom has worked for years at a local dry cleaner, while her dad travels around Texas, installing specialized bathrooms.

Meanwhile, they go to church, shop at the H-E-B for groceries, stop occasionally for a lemonade at Starbucks, and volunteer often in their communities, including their schools and Parent Teacher Associations (PTA).

“We are not criminals,” Jacqui’s mother emphasizes. “We are mothers, and we are fathers. We are people who work, and who take care of our children. That’s it! Not criminals. Not criminals.”

Until recently, these undocumented parents felt safe mostly, or at least not so exposed, or hated, as they do now. But this spring and summer, as federal immigration raids increased, and as reports of immigration agents following school buses spread, a radiating fear unfurled in homes and schools.

With parents targeted, students are traumatized, unable to learn, educators say. “One of our kindergarten teachers had a little boy who brought a suitcase with him to class for two days,” says Colorado Education Association Vice President Amie Baca-Oehlert. “When she asked him what it was for, he said ‘I want to make sure I have my special things when they come to get me.’”

Printed on this small card, tucked into the corner of a picture frame in an Austin house, are sentences that 15-year-old Cristal, or 10-year-old Nicolas, must read aloud—through the locked door—if ICE agents come for their parents.

“These shocked and frightened families are our friends and our neighbors,” says NEA President Lily  Eskelsen García of the shameful treatment. “As the Trump administration threatens our students, their families, and our way of life, we will not stay silent. As families turn to educators for solace and advice, we are going to accelerate our ongoing efforts.”

In Austin, an effort called “Know Your Rights,” led by Education Austin and funded, in part, by an NEA grant, provides much-needed, practical information to students, parents, and other community members on how to respond to immigration enforcement. Their work has been shared in Illinois, Arizona, and in Colorado, where the Colorado Education Association has partnered with advocacy groups to offer similar, statewide trainings. It also has been adapted by NEA for use across the nation.

Elsewhere, from Nebraska to New Mexico, Milwaukee to Maine, NEA members are using sample “Safe Zone” school board resolutions and district policies developed by NEA’s Office of General Counsel. The language is strong, legally defensible, student-focused, and relies on existing Supreme Court case law.

This is how educators care for their students, and this is how educators’ unions support that work, says Austin first-grade teacher Maria Dominguez.

“Our parents and students are scared. This is reality,” she says. “And if we’re a union that fights for our students, we need to do this work.”

Know Your Rights

Tucked into the corner of a picture frame, mounted inches from the front door of an Austin house, is a small card, about the size of a typical business card, from Education Austin’s “Know Your Rights” campaign.

Printed on the card are the sentences that 15-year-old Cristal, or 10-year-old Nicolas, must read aloud—through the locked door—if federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents come for their parents.

I do not wish to speak with you, answer your questions, or sign or hand you any documents based on my 5th Amendment rights… I do not give you permission to enter my home based on my 4th Amendment rights under the United States Constitution, unless you have a warrant to enter, signed by a judge or magistrate with my name on it that you slide under the door…

Nicolas and Cristal’s mother has been afraid to go to the nearby grocery store. Instead their dad drives, parks, and sends in the kids with a shopping list and money.

Nearby, on the dining room table, is a folder where Cristal’s mother, the president of her neighborhood school’s PTA, has collected all of the papers recommended by her children’s teachers. This includes copies of her children’s U.S. passports, as well as a power-of-attorney statement that would allow Cristal and Nicolas to stay in Austin, under the guardianship of their godmother, if their parents are deported.

A visitor does not ask what would happen to 5-year-old sister Stefanie, who somersaults across the sofa to nestle near her mother.

[Editor’s note: NEA Today is using first names only, in an effort to protect these students and their families.]

Be prepared is the message from their teachers. Get ready. Know your rights. Yes, you have rights, too! Led by Education Austin’s vice president, early-education teacher Montserrat Garibay, a former undocumented student who, in 2012, became a U.S. citizen after 20 years here, Austin educators have shared their message of empowerment with hundreds of parents and students. They also have provided trainings for their members and interested school and city officials.

“We advocate for our students to get glasses if they can’t see. We advocate for them to get special resources if they have dyslexia. This is just another way for us to advocate for them to get what they need,” says Dominguez, who herself was an undocumented student, brought here by her mother as a fourth grader.

Practical information is needed—and wanted. Education Austin’s trainings for educators and their meetings for families have been packed for months. On one Saturday in February, union leaders readied the library at Austin’s Becker Elementary for an expected 50 educators and school officials. But at 9 a.m., when the training was scheduled to begin, the line stretched out the door, the Austin Statesman reported. Garibay and others scrambled to move the event to the cafeteria to fit the 120-plus who showed up.

Five-year-old Stefanie is the least fearful—and aware—member of her family, but she senses the disruption in their routines.

The training for educators, which has been adapted by NEA for use in any community, by any local NEA affiliate, provides at least 12 specific actions that educators can take to help their immigrant students. They include providing a safe space for students to wait if their parent or sibling has been detained, but also helping parents to prepare for possible deportation. Their model “rapid response” packet will include everything from updated school emergency contact forms to records of their children’s food allergies.

Cristal, a high school freshman, has been volunteering to help at Education Austin’s trainings, where she passes out contact information for attorneys, counselors, social workers, and others.

Her mother and father, who came to the U.S. nearly two decades ago for work, are terrified, she says. Her uncle hasn’t left his house in a month. “My parents want me to stay, in case, you know…They don’t want me to leave here. They say, ‘You go to college,’” Cristal says. Her dream school is Texas State University in San Marcos. Her dream job is to be a social worker. “I want to help families,” she says.

But, she acknowledges, it’s hard to focus on school these days. “Teachers have to stop what they’re teaching to calm us down,” she says. But lately, many of her friends haven’t even been going to school. “Last month, I had just four kids in my class,” she says. Everybody else stayed home, hiding behind drawn curtains and locked doors.

This isn’t just an issue in Austin. During mid-February, one day after teams of ICE agents swept into a Las Cruces, N.M., trailer park and other homes, nearly 2,400 Las Cruces students stayed home from school.

“I went to the Wal-Mart last month and it was empty. Nobody is going there. Nobody is going anywhere. Our neighbor, she has depression, but she won’t even leave the house to pick up her medicine,” says Cristal.

“ICE could be anywhere.”

A Life Interrupted

Deportations during the Barack Obama years weren’t uncommon, but they focused on recent arrivals and criminals—those convicted of felonies or at least three misdemeanors. Law-abiding, here-for-decades parents of U.S. citizens weren’t targets.

Indeed, two years after creating the DACA program to protect students who had been brought to the U.S. as children, the Obama administration created DAPA, which offered work permits to their undocumented parents. The sense of relief that families would stay together was real.

“Nobody is going anywhere. Our neighbor … won’t even leave the house to pick up her medicine,” says Cristal. “ICE could be anywhere.”

But, in June 2016, with a 4-4 vote, the Supreme Court dismantled DAPA. And then, five months later, after promising to build a 50-foot-high wall along the 1,000-mile Mexican border, Donald Trump was elected president.

During the first weeks of his administration, arrests of immigrants rose 32.6 percent. But scarier to people like Cristal’s and Jacqui’s parents, the arrests of immigrants without criminal records more than doubled. Around Atlanta alone, ICE agents arrested 700 without criminal records—up from 137 the prior year.

Recent detainees include an El Paso, Texas, woman who was handcuffed at the county courthouse where she had gone to get a protective order from her abusive boyfriend—the very person who likely tipped off ICE agents to her presence, reported USA Today. Her only criminal offense was crossing the border illegally after deportation.

They also include Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, a 48-year-old father of four girls, all born in the U.S., who had just dropped off his 12-year-old at school when he was pulled over on a Los Angeles street by two black, unmarked cars. In a video of his arrest, his 13-year-old daughter, who was in the car on her way to a different school, can be heard sobbing. Her father, who has lived in the U.S. for 25 years, has an 8-year-old misdemeanor drunk-driving conviction, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Even more troubling, in April, the first confirmed deportation of a DACA recipient was reported by USA Today. Juan Manuel Montes, a 23-year-old community college student, was waiting for a friend to pick him up on the street when he was grabbed by ICE and just three hours later escorted across the Mexican border. More than 750,000 DACA recipients wondered if they were next. But, in June, Trump said he would leave DACA alone, reversing course on a campaign promise to dismantle it.

“I can feel how hollow my reassurances must sound when I tell [my students] everything should be fine,” writes Areli Zarate, a “DACAmented” Austin teacher who was brought here as an 8-year-old. “Truth is, I don’t know that. Nobody knows. Nobody can say whether some or all of my family will be torn from Austin.… No one can say definitively if I’ll be able to teach here come August, or if my students will be able to pursue their dreams.

“Try imagining yourself in my place, in this life interrupted, where the future is measured not in years, months, or even weeks but in days, sometimes hours.”

This fear is why Cristal’s mother stopped leaving the house to shop. Instead, Cristal’s father drives the 15-year-old to the grocery store, parks his pickup truck far from the entrance, and sends his daughter inside with the family’s shopping list.

Nicolas’ mother, the president of her neighborhood school’s PTA, has collected all of the papers recommended by her children’s teachers that would allow Cristal and Nicolas to stay in Austin, under the guardianship of their godmother, if their parents are deported.

How Can We Help?

Can we draw invisible lines around our schools to create safe zones for students? Can we construct spaces where they can focus on learning?

Educators are doing exactly that, across the nation. This spring, at the urging of hundreds of students and Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association members, the Milwaukee School Board unanimously passed a “safe haven” resolution. Among other things, it bars district staff from assisting ICE in detaining people “whose only violation of law” is that they are—or are suspected of being—undocumented. It also prohibits sharing information about a student’s or guardian’s status without a valid court order or signed release.

Similar “safe zone” resolutions and policies have passed in at least 25 states. (See NEA’s map of safe zone districts.)

“It is our job to make sure our most vulnerable students feel safe, supported, and in a place where they can learn,” says Omaha, Neb., library science teacher Ed Ventura. “We all watch the news and see the hateful rhetoric and actions, and frankly, it’s scary. That is why I worked with our school board on this resolution.”

The Omaha Public Schools board resolution, which was based on NEA’s draft resolution, passed in February. But even if your school board is hostile, educators still can help their students feel safe, says Jacqui, the Austin tenth grader.

“Just knowing that they support me, that they know my situation, and they understand why I might act a little weird some days, or have difficulty concentrating…this is helpful,” says Jacqui.

This spring, Jacqui organized a walkout at her high school, in protest of Trump’s words and actions. She hopes to inspire others to also speak up.

“If you don’t talk, or make noise, they can’t hear you,” she says.

—NEA EdJustice writers Sabrina Holcomb, David Sheridan, and Kate Snyder contributed to this report.

Photos: Luis Gomez

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Upon taking office in January, President Donald Trump pledged to treat with “great heart” the 800,000 young people who are Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program recipients. On Tuesday, Trump abandoned that promise, announcing through Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he would be rescinding DACA – an inhumane decision that will disrupt the lives of countless Dreamers, aspiring young Americans, neighbors, colleagues, and students, said National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García.

“This decision is immoral and un-American,” Eskelsen Garcia said.  “It will turn lives upside down and lead to unprecedented peril. After meeting all of the requirements to live and work in the United States, they will face deportation and separation from their families and our communities. They will again face anxiety and uncertainty about their future, stripped of the ability to live normal lives.”

The program, implemented in 2012 by the Obama administration, protects eligible youth from deportation for two years, subject to renewal, and provides them with a work authorization permit.

The NEA believes DACA has been a resounding success, making the nation’s immigration policy more fair and more efficient, and brightening the futures of the nearly 800,000 aspiring young Americans who live, study, and work in the United States.

The benefits extend to the U.S. economy. According to a recent analysis by the Center for American Progress, if DACA workers were to lose their status, more than $430 billion would be stripped from the U.S. gross domestic product over the ensuing decade.

Texas teacher Areli Zarate arrived in the United States with her family when she was 8 years old. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, she is now a DACAmented high school teacher. Thanks to DACA, Gema Hernandez is the first in her family to graduate from college. The creativity, talent, and contributions of people such as Zarate and Hernandez, should be embraced, says Eskelsen Garcia, not disregarded. While protecting DACA is essential, these young people deserve a longer-term solution.

In July, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina introduced bipartisan legislation, the Dream Act of 2017, that would grant legal status and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children. NEA is urging Congress to act now.

“Now more than ever, we need a permanent legislative solution to DACA so these young people have the certainty they deserve,” said Eskelsen Garcia. “Congress should not wait 6 months to permanently fix this decision but instead act immediately to protect DACA recipients and Dreamers, and pass into law the bipartisan Dream Act of 2017.”

Axel Herrera Ramos, a 19-year-old sophomore at Duke University, remembers the sound of the rain on the metal roof of his childhood home in Honduras. But that’s about all he remembers. Since age 7, he has called the U.S. his home.

“Let me put it this way—I can name every U.S. president, but I have no idea who is the president of Honduras,” he said.

On Friday, just days after President Trump formally announced the end of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), a federal program that has protected from deportation more than 800,000 young people who were brought to the U.S. as children, Ramos accompanied NEA President Lily Eskelsen García to the National Press Club in Washington D.C. Eskelsen García delivered a speech in which she pledged publicly to protect Ramos, his peers, and the hundreds of thousands of other immigrant students, undocumented or not, in U.S. public schools.

“You have our hearts and we will be fighting for you. Whatever it takes,” she said.

DACA, which was implemented in 2012 by President Obama, has worked to protect eligible young people from deportation for two years, subject to renewal, and provides them with a work authorization permit. Its recipients—often called DREAMers—have graduated college to work in U.S. technology, health fields, and public education. Public school teachers in Texas, Florida, Colorado, California and elsewhere are among the nation’s DREAMers.

“DACA is an unqualified success on every level. It’s humane. It’s just. And it’s pumping millions of dollars into our economy,” said Eskelsen García. “These are our students and we want to comfort them, but it’s hard to tell them the president can’t hurt them. They know the truth…

“But they will have to come through us to get to those students.”

Sign the NEA pledge to protect DREAMers.

The Best Public Schools

Earlier this year, Eskelsen García sent a letter to U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, in response to DeVos’ invitation to meet. Eskelsen García’s letter asked her three questions: Will you hold privately managed voucher and charter schools to the same standards of financial transparency as public schools? Will you privatize federal programs, like special education? Will you protect all students from discrimination—our students of color, our immigrant students, etc?

Axel Herrera Ramos at the National Press Club on September 8.

DeVos has never answered—not explicitly. But the administration’s abandonment of 800,000 young people is a kind of answer. Its new multi-million dollar federal voucher program also is an answer. “Her actions scream,” Eskelsen García told the National Press Club on Friday.

These are the wrong answers for America public schools, she added. The right answer is to make sure every public school is as good as the best public school—and this is possible. “Some of the best schools on the planet are among American public schools,” Eskelsen Garcia said.

But schools aren’t great because they have fantastic test prep programs. Or because they’re in cutthroat competition with for-profit charter schools, she said. These schools are great because they have excellent educators, who have “the collaborative authority to make instruction decisions for their students. They have technology that works and books in their libraries, and after-school programs and field trips and choirs and a debate team.”

Something that actually works to improve schools, Eskelsen García noted, is to treat students as whole people with complex needs, and involve their families and communities in their schools. Across the nation, community schools are feeding students, providing them—and their parents—with health care, even teaming up with local orchestras to provide music instruction.

From Honduras to Duke University

“I am frightened that these people who don’t know what they’re talking about will destroy our nation’s brightest crown jewels—like public education,” said Eskelsen García.

But she is also hopeful—and her hope includes the promise that Congress may actually legislate a compassionate, just solution for the 800,000 DREAMers in the U.S.

For his part, Ramos, who is studying economics and public policy at Duke, one of the premier private universities in the nation, also has promised to stay and fight for that solution. “Personally, I’m not going anywhere. The magnitude of having to transition from here to there is incomprehensible,” he said. “What’s in it for us, for students like me, is everything.”

Ramos also thinks about his mother, who crossed the border more than a decade ago, alone with her 7-year-old son, 3-year-old daughter, and a 12-year-old cousin. She has worked ever since, investing in her dreams for her children. “I see the efforts of my mother. I see the efforts of my teachers and counselors, and all the people who told me I could find a way.

“Being a DREAMER…for me, it’s about working to achieve something great.”

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

An estimated 20,000 teachers in the U.S. could be deported because of President Trump’s cancellation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA), the federal policy that has protected some young people brought to the U.S. as children.

Among them is Karen Reyes, a 29-year-old teacher of Deaf pre-kindergartners in Austin, Texas. A former Girl Scout who has lived in the U.S. since the age of 2, Reyes attended U.S. public schools from kindergarten through graduate school, eventually earning a master’s degree in special education from the University of Texas-San Antonio.

“I love my job. I love it!” says Reyes. “I get students who have zero or very limited language skills, and we help them reach the outside world. I had a student last year who came to my class with two words—at the end of the year, he was looking over my shoulder at a photograph and saying, ‘Who that? That Julian’s mommy? I like her!’”

There are about 1.2 million DACA-eligible young people in the U.S., according to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), which estimates that 365,000 of them are high-school students and 241,000 enrolled in college. The rest are workers whose deportations would cost the federal government an estimated $60 billion in revenues and the national economy an estimated $215 billion in productivity, according to a Cato Institute study.

The additional costs of replacing the 20,000 teachers is mind-boggling. Replacing just one teacher is estimated to cost as much as $17,872, according to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. That means replacing the 20,000 could cost school districts—and local taxpayers—as much as $350 million. This does not include the emotional price paid by students or the toll on these young teachers, who are fiercely dedicated to their students and careers.

“As a teacher, all I want to do is teach and help my kids,” says Reyes.

[Help Reyes by asking Congress to support the 2017 DREAM Act.]

Tell Congress To Do The Right Thing

While Trump’s revocation of DACA is “immoral and un-American,” says NEA President Lily Eskelsen García, she is hopeful that Congress will pass compassionate, just legislation that will allow young immigrants to pursue their American dreams.

“Now more than ever, we need a permanent legislative solution to DACA so these young people have the certainty they deserve,” says García. “Congress should…act immediately to protect DACA recipients and Dreamers, and pass into law the bipartisan Dream Act of 2017.”

First introduced in 2001, and re-introduced this July by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), the DREAM Act is a bipartisan bill that would offer permanent legal status to qualifying young people who arrived in the U.S. as children. According to a recent Politico/Morning Consult poll, 76 percent of Americans believe these young people should be allowed to stay.

Teacher Karen Reyes earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas public universities.

But, for the legislation to pass, members of Congress need to hear from those Americans who support their neighbors, their classmates, their soldiers, their teachers who have lived in the U.S. for nearly all their lives.

Reyes is far from the only NEA member with DACA certification. Among the 20,000 DACA-mented teachers, MPI estimates about 5,000 work in California. Texas and New York each benefit from about 2,000 DACA teachers, while Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania have about a thousand per state, Education Week has reported.

Jorge Resendez, a DACA-certified, 9^th-grade social studies teacher, is among a group of Denver teachers originally hired through Teach for America (TFA), which has actively recruited DACA recipients. He loves teaching, his school, and his students so much that he stayed beyond TFA’s typical two-year commitment, and now is in his fourth year.

“I heard so many stories when I was in college about undocumented young folks who graduated but couldn’t go into a career,” says Resendez, who graduated from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2013. “Fortunately for me, I was able to apply for DACA, and I was able to do something I’m passionate about, which is education.”

Resendez’ students know his immigration status, and they joined him in protest on the day this month that Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the cancellation of DACA. “It was a really proud moment for me—to see them standing up for me, and standing up for their peers,” he says.

As a student organizer, Resendez worked on the passage of California’s DREAM Act. He knows what is possible when people get organized and speak with a united voice. He also knows it’s going to be hard. “The first thing we can do is protest,” he told his students. “But moving forward, we need to write letters, talk with our legislators. I know this isn’t going to be our last battle, but I have hope of protecting our community.”

(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

About 800,000 young people, brought to the U.S. as children, have been been able to go to college and pursue their dreams in the country that they call home, thanks to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DAC) program, which has protected them from deportation. In September, President Trump announced an end to DACA.

Tell Congress to Preserve DACA and Pass the Dream Act. DACA recipients deserve the certainty and permanent protections the Dream Act provides.

Washington State University students and community members rally in support of the DREAM Act on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018. (Geoff Crimmins/The Moscow-Pullman Daily News via AP)

It’s been an emotional roller coaster for 800,000 Dreamers—young people brought to the U.S. as children, who have received the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, protections over the five years of the program.

In September, President Donald Trump rescinded DACA, sparking fear and uncertainty among Dreamers, including 600,000 who are high school or college students, and nearly 9,000 who are educators.

Five months later, Trump vowed to work with Congress to protect undocumented immigrants who entered the country illegally as children. “We are gonna deal with DACA with heart,” he said.

But just this month, he tweeted “DACA is dead” and “NO MORE DACA DEAL.”

“It’s hard being in this limbo,” says Karen Reyes, a 29-year-old teacher of Deaf pre-kindergartners in Austin, Texas. A former Girl Scout who has lived in the U.S. since the age of 2, Reyes attended U.S. public schools from kindergarten through graduate school, eventually earning a master’s degree in Deaf Education and Hearing Science from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

“One moment you have your hopes up, thinking a deal might happen, and then there’s a tweet and people think you’re back to square one,” she says. But that’s not the case, she explains.

“I had so many people call and text me as they heard about the tweet, asking what it meant and if we were back to square one. But they don’t realize all the work that we’ve done, the allies we’ve made, and the foundation we’ve built. Those of us in the movement know we’re not back to the beginning—we’re just on a detour.”

Approximately 22,000 DACA recipients have lost their status—including educators—since September. This means, they lose their work permits and the ability to teach and support themselves or their families.

“Lives are on the line,” says Andrew Kim, an immigration-rights activist who in 2015, as a student at Emory University in Atlanta, organized a successful campaign to provide need-based financial aid to undocumented students. Since then, the university has expanded their policies to include all undocumented students, not just DACA recipients.

What’s happening today, however, is more than just going to college, says Kim. “It’s about their existence because DACA affects people’s lives in every way.”

Reyes, for example, worries about having a job next school year, paying rent, and her car note. “There’s so much uncertainty,” she says.

Dreamer activists attend a press conference on Capitol Hill in September 2017 calling for passage of the Dream Act.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

‘The Environment is Very Tense’

While fear and anxiety is mounting, especially in places like Texas and Arizona, which forces local governments and law enforcement agencies to do the work of federal immigration officers by asking residents to show proof of citizenship and where in-state tuition was dropped for Dreamers, respectively, immigration activists are busy organizing their communities.

Hugo Arreola is a campus lab technician for the Phoenix Union High School District in Arizona. A DACA recipient himself, he sees his students and community in turmoil.

 “We have a lot of students on hold,” says Arreola. “Many are afraid to renew their DACA applications, student anxiety is up, and people are still scared—the environment is very tense.”

Arreola, however, isn’t idle. Through his union, the Arizona Education Association and Phoenix Union Classified Employees Association, as well as  local organizations, he’s involved with various workshops, information forums, and trainings that help inform people of their rights.

“It starts in the local area and making sure you have representatives who understand the realities of the situation and how this impacts their area,” Arreola explains, adding that educators and community members can lobby their schools’ governing board to get friendly immigration policies passed, such as creating safe zones and protecting the rights and privacy of undocumented students.

Elizabeth Jiménez, for example, is an elementary school teacher in Westmont, Ill., and a school board member for Berwyn South 100, a district just west of Chicago with large populations of Latino, ELL, and immigrant students.

Jiménez was once undocumented herself. “I understand how it feels, however, I cannot imagine how it feels to be threatened, to be in danger of being forced to leave the only place that you know as your home … attacking our students, our neighbors, our friends and our family is un-American and immoral,” which is why she helped pass a school board resolution to create safe zones within the Berwyn school district.

The resolution passed, but more still needs to be done. “I need professional development for teachers,” says Jiménez, explaining that some teachers who don’t share the same experiences as their students don’t know what to do when parents of students get detained or deported.

Grassroots Organizing Continues

“Our fight is going to continue,” says Karen Reyes of Texas. “We still have to lobby for the Dream Act and lobby for a permanent solution because DACA was a band aid.”

Since September, Reyes has met with state and federal lawmakers. “Our biggest tool is sharing our story because once we humanize it we become more than just an acronym. I’ve met so many people who’ve said, ‘I had no idea you were undocumented.’’’ Reyes shares that many of the people who once spread anti-immigrant messages are now fighting for a permanent solution alongside her.

Additionally, the pre-kindergarten teacher has been involved with citizen drives sponsored by her local union, Education Austin, and United We Dream. “As educators we have this great niche where people trust teachers, and we can hold these trainings and reach a vast majority.”

Recently, Reyes helped organize a citizenship drive and assisted 112 permanent residents with their citizenship paperwork. “I now know there’s going to be 112 new citizens who will vote and that’s amazing,” she says.

Voting will be a critical aspect in realizing change. “We are watching,” says Elizabeth Jiménez. “Next election cycle, if you don’t support us, we’re going to campaign against you.”

Andrew Kim, originally from Georgia and currently a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University in Illinois, says the type of work Reyes, Arreola, and Jiménez do is critical and needs to be increased and sustained.

“We’re in a dire state,” he says, and suggests volunteering or donating money to legal aid clinics, advocacy groups, or non-profit organizations that provide direct services for undocumented immigrants. Kim underscores that the efforts of everyday people need to be more than just a “one-off.”

“A drastic shift needs to happen, from a one- or two-day volunteer trip to sustained active resistance and continued solidarity with organizations that are already on the ground providing direct resources,” he says, adding that “DACA isn’t dead, but we need to support these organizations.”

Karen Reyes agrees and says, “It’s all these little steps: building up the community, building up the people power, and showing people that they do have power—just because we’re undocumented doesn’t mean we don’t have a voice. We do have a voice and it matters just as much as anyone else’s voice.”

On the national stage, NEA filed amicus briefs in two lawsuits (University of California vs. U.S. Department of Homeland Security and New York vs. Trump/Batalla Vidal v. Nielson) urging the courts to strike down the actions of the Trump Administration to end DACA.

NEA’s amicus briefs contain the voices of dozens of educators from across the country who provided a view of why DACA is important and of the impact the threat of revocation of DACA has had from the frontlines of education.

• Cindi Marten, the Superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, noted anxiety among students transcends immigration status, “Kids are worried about what’s going to happen to them. People think this is just . . . an immigration issue. That’s not what we’re seeing. Teachers and principals are saying that kids are scared for their friends. They’re also affected.”
• Angelica Reyes, a DACA recipient and an A.P. History teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District where she was once a student says, that thanks to DACA “I could finally serve my community. And I could be an educator. DACA gave me a clear path to obtain the career I had been working towards.”
• Kateri Simpson, a teacher in the Oakland Unified School District, has seen first-hand how DACA has motivated students to fully engage in school and work toward graduation because postgraduate opportunities like college were now within reach. Simpson says, “The basic sense of human dignity to be able to work for what you want—I don’t think can be underestimated.”

As Dreamers, educators, and families anxiously await a court decision, grassroots organizing continues around the country to pressure Congress to act.

Whether you’re a classroom teacher, school counselor, paraeducator, bus driver, cafeteria worker or school secretary, everyone who works in a public school faces a new school year ready to do the job they love. But they are also prepared to confront undeniable challenges. These challenges may differ district to district, school to school, but one thing is clear: the voice of educators is needed now more than ever and their unions are providing the megaphone. It’s not up to our teachers and school staff to shoulder this burden themselves. Administrators, parents, communities, lawmakers must do their part. But as the mobilization of educators that began earlier this year has demonstrated so powerfully – the “Educator Spring” as NEA President Lily Eskelsen García calls it – the nation is finally listening to what they have to say.

Education Funding: Where’s the Money?

When educators from around the country walked out of their classrooms last spring, their message was clear: Our students deserve better. By taking this action, they said no more jam-packed classrooms with 40-plus desks, no more decades-old textbooks held together with rubber bands, and no more leaky ceilings, broken light fixtures, pest infestations, and cuts to basic curricula that are essential to a well-rounded education.

“We are truly in a state of crisis,” says Noah Karvelis, an educator from Arizona, where cuts to public school funding have been deeper than anywhere else in the country.

Public school funding has been cut to the quick all over the country after excessive and reckless tax cuts.

It’s been more than 10 years since the Great Recession, but many states are providing far less money to their schools today than they did before the crash. Our schools are crumbling and educators are leaving the profession in droves, unable to pay off student debt or make ends meet on stagnant salaries.

As of the 2017 – 2018 school year, at least 12 states had slashed “general” or “formula” funding—the primary form of state support for elementary and secondary schools—by 7 percent or more per student over the last decade, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Seven of the states—Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Oklahoma—enacted tax cuts costing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars each year, instead of restoring education funding.

“To add to this heartache, new teachers in our state of North Carolina have never known anything different, and many even believe our current reality is normal,” says Todd Warren, a Spanish teacher and president of North Carolina’s Guilford County Association of Educators. “While the wealthy and corporate elite recovered from the recession of 2008, public school teachers and their students did not. North Carolina public school teachers make more than 11 percent less on average than we did 15 years ago when salaries are adjusted for inflation.”

But it’s the students who suffer the most from budget cuts, particularly poor students. Public education has been a pathway out of poverty for families for generations, but that pathway is blocked when schools are unable to offer a decent education.Too often, low-income students end up in schools with the lowest funding, fewest supplies, the least rigorous curriculum, and the oldest facilities and equipment, according to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

On average, school districts spend around $11,000 per student each year, but the highest-poverty districts receive an average of $1,200 less per child than the least-poor districts, while districts serving the largest numbers of students of color get about $2,000 less than those serving the fewest students of color, the study says.

No more, says Todd Warren.

“There are enough of us to say, ‘Enough!’” says Warren. “It is time to leverage our power now.”

Join millions of voices fighting for our nation’s public school students and educators. Take the #RedforEd Pledge! 

Keeping School Safe

A 2018 survey by the Pew Research Center conducted two months after this year’s February school shooting in Parkland, Fla., showed that 57 percent of U.S. teenagers are worried that a shooting could take place at their own school. One in four are “very worried” about the chance.

Those numbers are staggering but hardly surprising given the rash of school shootings that have captured headlines this year, and in previous years. Since the shooting at Colorado’s Columbine High School in April 1999, more than 187,000 U.S. students have been exposed to gun violence in school.

Fed up with lawmakers’ inaction, students across the nation in 2018 are leading a national movement to bring common sense to the discussion.

Educators understand if students don’t feel safe at school, achievement suffers. It’s the paramount duty of everyone in the community–and the politicians who represent them–to help create safe learning spaces.

Arming teachers and school staff is not the answer. According to an NEA survey, seven in 10 educators said arming school personnel would be ineffective at preventing gun violence in schools and two-thirds said they would feel less safe if school personnel were armed.

Educators across the U.S. stood up to reject the idea that more weapons would help save student lives. As of May 2017, only one state had passed a law that mandated arming teachers and staff.

“We don’t want to be armed. We want better services for our students,” says Corinne McComb, an elementary educator from Norwich, Conn. “More psychologists and counselors who can be present for the students more than one day a week or month. We need services for families. We have the money, we can do this.”

The Pressure is On

Kathy Reamy, a school counselor at La Plata High School in La Plata, Md., says the trend is unmistakable.

“Honestly, I’ve had more students this year hospitalized for anxiety, depression, and other mental-health issues than ever,” says Reamy, who also chairs the NEA School Counselor Caucus. “There’s just so much going on in this day and age, the pressures to fit in, the pressure to achieve, the pressure of social media.”

It doesn’t help, adds Denise Pope of Stanford University, that schools have become “a pressure cooker for students and staff…and student and teacher stress feed off each other.”

According to a 2018 study by the University of Missouri, 93 percent of elementary school teachers report they are “highly stressed.”

Stressful schools aren’t healthy for anyone. There’s nothing wrong with a little pressure, a little nervousness over an exam, or a teacher who wants students to succeed. We all feel pressure, but something else is going on.

The causes and convergence of teacher and student stress has been a growing concern over the past decade. Research has consistently shown that stress levels in newer educators especially is leading many of them to exit the profession within five years.

Teachers need adequate resources and support in their jobs in order to battle burnout and alleviate stress in the classroom. If we do not support teachers, we risk the collateral damage of students.

One solution for students could be more one-on-one time with psychologists and counselors. But that’s a challenge since so many of those positions have been cut and are not coming back. That said, more and more schools take the issue of stress seriously, and have begun to look at ways to change policies over homework, class schedules, and later school start times to help alleviate the pressure many students feel.

“People are finally seeing what negative stress does to the body, what that does to the psyche, and what it does to school engagement,” says Pope. “Schools and communities know stress is a problem and they want solutions.”

A Better Way Forward on Discipline

Think back on the days when you were in middle school and high school. Remember the awkwardness, anxiety, and angst that hung over you like a cloud? Your students, no matter their behavior, are probably grappling with the same troubling emotions, says Robin McNair, the Restorative Practices Program coordinator for Prince George’s County in Maryland.

“When you look beyond behavior, when you truly look at the person behind the behavior, you’ll often find a cry for help,” says McNair, whose work in Restorative Justice Practices (RJP) aims to drastically reduce suspensions and expulsions, increase graduation rates, and transform student behaviors.

RJP has proven to be the most effective way for educators to break the school-to-prison pipeline, a national trend where children—mostly low-income and children of color—are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems through harsh “zero tolerance” discipline policies for even minor infractions.

In the 2013 – 2014 school year, the most recent nationwide data available, black students were three times more likely to receive both in-school and out-of-school suspensions than white students.

Rather than casting out students after wrongdoing, RJP seeks to reintegrate them into the classroom or school community to make amends and learn how to handle problems more positively. 

Simply put, students are better off in school than they are when they’re kicked out and left to their own devices in an empty home or apartment, where court involvement becomes more likely. But all students who participate in RJP—even those not directly involved in a conflict—report feeling safer and happier.

McNair suggests that educators strive to create a tight-knit community, even a family, in their classrooms from day one so that students not only know each other, but genuinely care about each other. 

“Restorative practices aren’t only for use after a conflict or incident. These practices allow us to proactively build community within a classroom and within a school by nurturing relationships between teachers and students,” McNair says. “When students know that you care about them they are more likely to follow the rules and more likely to stay in the classroom and do the work,” adds McNair.

Learn more about restorative practices in schools.

Chronic Absenteeism

According to the U.S. Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), about 8 million students missed more than three weeks of school during the 2015 – 2016 school year, up from 6.8 million the previous year.

Chronic absenteeism is typically defined as missing 10 percent or more of a school year. This translates  to roughly 18 days a year, or two days every month. Chronic absenteeism is usually a precursor to dropping out. And dropouts often wind up before the court.

Educators like Lois Yukna have created innovative ideas designed to keep kids in school. Others can learn from what Yukna is doing. 

For more decades, Yukna was a school bus driver in Middlesex County, N.J. Today, Yukna is a school attendance officer in New Jersey’s Woodbridge Township School District. Her job now is to make sure that once students get to school, they stay. 

When students don’t attend school regularly, Yukna works closely with students, parents, and the courts to turn the situation around.

“Something needed to be done because the main goal is to educate students, and they can’t be educated if they’re not in school,” says Yukna.

She noticed that students who were frequent no-shows at school were the same ones whose behavior when they attended resulted in detentions, suspensions, and sometimes, trouble with police.

Yukna and a guidance counselor in the Woodbridge district put their heads together to come up with something that would emphasize restorative practices instead of suspension and encourage students to return to and stay in school.

Supported by NEA grants, the program exposes about 100 students “to a world of possibilities through internships, mentorships, and achievement incentives.” Parents have classes on nutrition, health, and the impact of social media and family dynamics on learning. “They learn how to motivate their children to come to school and do their best,” Yukna says.

In the first year, approximately 85 percent of the students improved in at least one area: academics, attendance, or attitude. In the second year, all of the students improved in each area. Best of all, of the participants who were seniors, 100 percent graduated in 2017.

—Contributed by Joye Barksdale

Getting in Front of ESSA

In the last few years, schools and states nationwide have spent a lot of time designing new plans to coincide with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed by Congress in 2016. 

Now that ESSA state implementation plans are done, what should educators expect in the new school year? 

Expect to see more schools identified for improvement under the law’s expanded accountability system. Some states, like Washington, have already released their list of schools, which were identified through multiple measures of academic and school quality indicators, not just test scores.

The challenge here is that while the accountability system was expanded, the money to help support the additional schools identified for improvement was not. These schools will be put on tiers of support. The greatest amount of money will go to the highest priority and trickle down. 

As the school year continues, district leaders will need to create ESSA implementation plans, leaving schools identified for improvement with the task of building their own site-based plans. Since the plans must include educator input—not only teachers, but also paraeducators, nurses, librarians, counselors, and other education support professionals—this is the period during which the voices of NEA members will be critical. 

“Get in front of it,” recommends Donna Harris-Aikens, director of NEA’s Education Policy and Practice department. “It is possible that the principal or superintendent in a particular place may not be focused on this yet.”

To learn what’s available at their schools, educators can use NEA’s Opportunity Checklist, a short, criteria-based tool to quickly assess what’s available at their school, and the Opportunity Audit, a tool that is rooted in the seven NEA Great Public Schools (GPS) criteria, which addresses the research and evidence-based resources, policies, and practices that are proven to narrow opportunity and skills gaps.

While some may be discouraged by the thought of placing more schools on an improvement plan, the truth is that despite some funding challenges, ESSA remains a promising opportunity. 

Supporting Undocumented Students

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

If the last several months are any indication of the challenges educators will face around the immigration status of students, they should expect uncertainty and fear.

It’s been an emotional roller coaster for Dreamers—young people brought to the U.S. as children, who have received the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, protections over the five years of the program. In September 2017, President Donald Trump rescinded DACA. Five months later, he vowed to work with Congress to protect undocumented immigrants who entered the country illegally as children. In April, he tweeted “DACA is dead” and “NO MORE DACA DEAL.”

“We have a lot of students on hold,” says Hugo Arreola, a campus lab technician for the Phoenix Union High School District in Arizona. A DACA recipient himself, he sees his students and community in turmoil. “Many are afraid to renew their DACA applications, student anxiety is up, and people are still scared. The environment is very tense.”

Hugo Arreola

“It’s hard being in this limbo,” says Karen Reyes, a 29-year-old teacher of deaf pre-kindergartners in Austin, Texas. A former Girl Scout who has lived in the U.S. since the age of 2, Reyes attended U.S. public schools from kindergarten through graduate school, eventually earning a master’s degree in Deaf Education and Hearing Science from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

“One moment you have your hopes up, thinking a deal might happen, and then there’s a tweet and people think you’re back to square one,” she says. That’s not the case, she explains. “But they don’t realize all the work we’ve done, the allies we’ve made, and the foundation we’ve built. We’re not back to the beginning. We’re just on a detour.”

Arreola and Reyes are active union members helping to inform, engage, and empower the immigration community in their respective hometowns.

Through Arreola’s unions, the Arizona Education Association and Phoenix Union Classified Employees Association, and local allies, he’s involved in various workshops, information forums, and trainings that help inform people of their rights. “It starts in the local area and making sure you have representatives who understand the realities of the situation and how this impacts their area,” Arreola explains.

Reyes has been involved with citizen drives, sponsored by her local union, Education Austin, and United We Dream. 

Educators can take steps in their own communities to fight the uncertainty and fear undocumented students face.  Go to NEA Ed Justice to learn more about Safe Zone school board policies and NEA’s toolkit for “Know Your Rights.”

Seeing Past the Hype of New Technologies

Every few months it seems educators get inundated with stories about the next big thing in classroom technology—a “game changer” set to “revolutionize” teaching and learning. Sound familiar? It should. Education technology, for all its benefits (and there are many), tends to be subject to egregious hype. A lot of money, after all, is to be made and many school districts—eager to demonstrate that their schools are on the “cutting edge”—can make some rather questionable purchasing decisions. 

Just recall the 2013 decision by Los Angeles Unified School District to proceed with a $1.3 billion plan to put an iPad loaded with a Pearson curriculum in the hands of every student. Technical glitches and lack of teacher training were just a couple of problems that eventually crippled the initiative.

Educators know better than anyone that healthy skepticism or at least caution about the latest classroom technology will end up serving their students best. It’s a stand that gets teachers branded as resistant to change, a convenient and unhelpful label. It has more to do with what’s best for student learning. 

The good news is that the impulse to buy into the latest hype has been curtailed somewhat over the past few years as educators have taken a seat at the table. If you want to try the latest and greatest virtual learning, gamification, personalization, the first question always has to be “What is best for my students?” As Tracey Matt, a language arts teacher in Albia, Iowa, says. “It takes a great teacher to foster independent learners. This must be done with the use of technology on the forefront, but it should not supersede the importance of an instructor.”

Technology will continue to advance and more “game-changers” are invariably lurking around the corner. Maybe they can revolutionize the classroom, but it’s the educator who is best suited to determine how and why new tech should be used to best serve students. 

Pushing Back Against Privatization

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos may be privatization’s most visible and stalwart proponent, but school privatization has been a threat to public education for more than 20 years and is financed and championed by a network of corporate interests. Their goal: to use their financial muscle and propaganda to undermine the mission of public schools and position the nation’s students as commodities upon which to draw a sizeable profit. 

Still, DeVos’ appointment to lead the nation’s education agenda in 2017 was a huge boost just as charter schools and voucher programs were losing a little steam. (Vouchers have been voted down at the ballot box every time they’ve been attempted through referendum.)

DeVos is a vocal advocate of cutting education spending and freeing up federal dollars to expand charter and voucher programs nationwide. Charter schools have expanded dramatically since their introduction in 1992, and currently serve about 5 percent of the nation’s students. 

Educators, however, are determined to stop vouchers from taking hold in the way charters have done. Voucher schemes drain hundreds of millions of dollars away from public school students to pay the private school tuition of a select few.

They “are destructive and misguided schemes that use taxpayer dollars to “experiment with our children’s education without any evidence of real, lasting positive results,” says NEA President Lily Eskelsen García.

Educators and activists are making a huge difference in their states by lobbying lawmakers to reject vouchers (often rebranded by their advocates as “education savings accounts” or “tuition tax credits”).

In 2018, New Hampshire educators led the way in defeating a plan to establish so-called “education savings accounts,” which would have diverted a massive chunk of taxpayer money from public schools to fund the private school education of some students. Private schools would have to accept public funds but provide “no access to financial records, student achievement data, and no say in how the school is run,” says Megan Tuttle, president of NEA-New Hampshire. “The absence of public accountability for voucher funds has contributed to rampant fraud, waste, and abuse in current voucher programs across the country.”

NEA: Vouchers Cost Kids

Voucher proposals have been defeated in other states but their proponents are nothing if not relentless. Which is why, according to David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center, activists must stay alert to the ongoing effort to push school voucher initiatives and to hold them up to public scrutiny.

“There’s a need to be vigilant in every state where governors and key legislators support these bills,” Sciarra says. 

Join the fight against school vouchers at vouchers.nea.org

Electing Better Lawmakers

Did you yell at the TV when you heard Betsy DeVos confuse proficiency and growth during her confirmation hearing? Are you disturbed by out-of-touch lawmakers like Arizona’s John Allen, who said teachers work second jobs so they can afford boats and big homes? Do you cringe at the fact that some Kansas lawmakers have tried to skirt the state supreme court’s ruling that they must remedy the woeful underfunding of schools?

 The reality is that too few elected officials at the local, state, and federal level have the in-depth knowledge of public education that only comes from working as an educator. And it shows in their policies and their budgets. 

 As if educating students every school day weren’t enough, it’s also on you to make sure officeholders understand the issues you face in the classroom and how to make progress solving them.

 The key is to show up and speak up.

 “We have to make our voices heard by the people who are making decisions that affect our classrooms,” says Maryland music teacher Jessica Fitzwater.

Balvir Singh, a high school math teacher from Burlington, N.J., won a seat on the Burlington County Board of Freeholders in November. Singh, an alum of NEA’s See Educators Run candidate training program, previously served on his local
school board.

“Elected officials need to understand that it’s not just dollars and cents, students’ entire lives will be impacted by these decisions,” she adds. 

That means showing up and sharing your story at school board meetings, lobby days with state lawmakers, and town halls when your members of Congress are back home. Check your state association website and attend your next local association meeting to find out how to get involved. 

And if your elected leaders still aren’t listening, throw your support behind people who will.

 This November brings a critical opportunity to elect (or re-elect) pro-public education candidates who are not beholden to those who want to privatize education, and who are willing listen to educators and parents. 

Educators are reliable voters. But you can inspire others to head to the polls for pro-public ed candidates as well.

 Latwala Dixon, a math teacher at Columbia High School in Lake City, Fla., says talking to people about the importance of voting in past election cycles has made her even more passionate about the issues that affect her as an educator and a citizen.

 “I tell a lot of people, if you don’t use your right to vote, you will lose it,” Dixon says. Some of the people she speaks with—friends, acquaintances, colleagues—have responded enthusiastically, but others indicate they do not believe their vote makes a difference.

“So what you’re only one vote? Your vote counts,” Dixon says emphatically. “What if all of you ‘only one vote’ people got out there and voted? It could really turn the tide.”

Here’s another “tide turning” way to make sure elected leaders invest in schools—become one yourself! If you’re considering a run or supporting a colleague who is running for office, check out NEA’s candidate training program for members at SeeEducatorsRun.org.