The Trump administration's surge in law enforcement has created a chilling effect on student attendance in school districts nationwide, but it appears that preliminary data and attendance trackers from some districts do not show a large-scale enrollment plunge due to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations near school grounds.In September, President Donald Trump sent additional federal troops to aid immigration enforcement in Chicago.Despite this, the Chicago Public Schools system said its attendance remains "largely consistent" with last year as some student groups are seeing dips in attendance at "discrete points" -- referring to individual, separate events -- this fall. In Washington, D.C., the city's local law enforcement has always worked alongside federal agencies.
After it saw a surge in troops in August and September during a 30-day federal takeover, preliminary data shows the city's attendance rate was within one percentage point of the same time period in the previous school year for "all students," according to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.That office said the preliminary data from Sept.
30 included each student group and racial ethnicity group. Immigrant families fear Trump's deportations as children return to schoolLos Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the nation's second largest school system after New York City's, has a 94% attendance rate for the 2025-2026 school year, according to the district's website.Falling birth rates, self-deportation, migration and other factors have caused a drop in K-12 enrollment and attendance in certain parts of the country so far this year, according to data from school districts around the country, including the Los Angeles and Miami-Dade County public school systems, which both saw 4% decreases in 2025-2026 enrollment.Fear from immigrant communitiesDespite preliminary estimates of student enrollment, the Trump administration's immigration curb has left immigrant families...