ICE raids have disrupted lives and families across the country; many times parents have been arrested by ICE when their children are at school, leaving school officials and local social service agencies unprepared to handle the situation. The Associated Press reports on one school district in Texas that is trying to be better prepared for the next raid.
Garland school district officials are taking steps to ensure their students are not left without a legal guardian should their parents be deported in an immigration raid during school hours.
The Garland school district will ask all parents to provide the names and phone numbers of six emergency contacts. The district is also instructing school officials to not allow a student board a bus if a parent is detained or deported and no one else is available to take the child home, The Dallas Morning News reported Saturday.
The plan also forbids anyone not on the emergency contact list from withdrawing the student from school in the event of a raid, the paper reported.
"We don’t anticipate large-scale raids here in our district because we don’t really have the industry (known for hiring illegal immigrants) that suggests this sort of thing will happen here," said Shelly Hopkins, who oversees district programs for English learners. "But we do want to support principals (in cases) where the legal guardian has been detained and deported." Click here for the story.
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