School enrollment plummets in LAUSD and beyond amid immigration raids

Last school year, this Roybal Learning Center junior was doing well and making excellent grades. This year, as a senior, she’s almost dropped out several times and has talked of leaving the U.S. and reuniting with her mother, who was deported over the summer to Guatemala.

So far, the girl has remained in school, says teacher Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona. But many students in similar situations have not.

Across the nation, immigration raids and border restrictions have led to a drop in K-12 enrollment that appears to number in at least the tens of thousands, affecting Los Angeles, San Diego, Miami and elsewhere, based on figures provided by school district officials. The drop also reflects the lack of non-U.S.-born students, or “newcomers,” entering the nation’s public school systems.

For students who had already been attending U.S. schools, the decline is an indicator of disrupted learning — and, in some school districts, financial shortfalls.

“These declines reflect a climate of fear and instability created by ongoing immigration crackdowns, which disrupt family stability, housing and mobility,” said L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho. “When families are afraid to be seen, or when they cannot afford to remain in their communities, they are less likely to enroll, reenroll, or stay in public schools.”

At Roybal, just west of downtown L.A., there are at least 200 fewer students than anticipated, said Cardona, who teaches ethnic studies and serves as coordinator for a film and television magnet program. Before this year, she said, programs at the school had a waiting list.

“We’re not too sure if some students are sheltering in place, if they’re working, or if they got deported or self-deported,” Cardona said. “We’ve done our best to help them with resources but with a lot of the kiddos, we just don’t know what happened to them.”

Neither the U.S. Department of Education nor the Department of Homeland Security — which are charged with enforcing Trump administration education and immigration policy — responded immediately to a request for comment.

How Los Angeles Unified is affected

In the L.A. Unified School District, enrollment overall is down just over 4% compared with last year. This it is about 2% more than a projection based on factors other than immigration enforcement.

Carvalho said fears in immigrant communities “are now exacerbating preexisting factors that were already driving statewide enrollment declines — including falling birth rates, rising housing costs and broader economic pressures.”

In a school system with nearly 400,000 students, the difference this year between the anticipated decline and the actual decline is more than 7,000 students.

An indicator that speaks to the effect of immigration enforcement is the number of “newcomer” students.

Newcomers are defined as non-U.S.-born students enrolled for three or fewer years in any U.S. school. This is an educational category, not an indication of whether a student resides legally in the country. California schools do not collect information about legal status — and a 1982 Supreme Court decision protects the right of immigrant children to receive a public education.

In 2023-24, L.A. Unified had 21,997 newcomers by the end of the school year, accounting for 5.2% of students. The end-of-year total for last year was 19,110 students — 4.7% of total enrollment and a decrease of 2,887 from the previous year.

At that point, President Trump had been in office for about six months — with a surge in immigration raids in Los Angeles spiking in June.

The enrollment trend continued this fall, with recent data showing an additional decline of 1,768 newcomers, bringing their enrollment to 17,342 and reducing newcomers to 4.4% of total enrollment.

“While newcomers have historically been a vibrant and growing part of our school communities, their enrollment has declined significantly over the past three years, with year-over-year decreases that mirror the uncertainty many families are living through,” Carvalho said.

The mother of the Roybal student was detained during a summer raid at the Vernon factory where she worked and then quickly deported, Cardona said. The student is staying with relatives and, with support from the school, remains in classes. But she also has to help care for two younger siblings and feels pressure to get a job.

“It’s distressing to us when she says that she’s going to have to drop out of school,” Cardona said. “It’s obvious that she is good at it and works hard at it, but she’s just preoccupied with ensuring that there’s funds so her siblings can reunite with her mom.”

District data suggest that many newcomers who were expected to return have not done so.

At the end of the 2024–25 school year, after accounting for graduates and families known to have relocated, 18,232 newcomer students were enrolled and expected to return this fall. Of these, 16,668 returned, 8.5% lower than anticipated.

Widespread effect on newcomer students

In San Diego, Principal Fernando Hernandez has enrolled dozens of newcomer students from across Latin America over the last couple of years. Many made the treacherous journey through the jungles of the Darien Gap before setting up camp in a park near the Perkins K-8 school.

About a third of students at the school are homeless. Staffers have become experts on supporting kids who are facing adversity.

Principal Fernando Hernandez at the Perkins K-8 school in San Diego on Nov. 13, 2025.

(Gregory Bull / Associated Press)

But so far this school year, he hasn’t enrolled a single newcomer. Other families did not return when the new school year began. Overall, the district’s enrollment is on par with last year’s, according to a spokesperson. But at Hernandez’s school, the change is noticeable.

In Florida’s Miami-Dade County Public Schools — formerly led by Carvalho — about 2,550 students have entered the district from another country so far this school year — down from nearly 14,000 last year, and more than 20,000 the year before that. School board member Luisa Santos, who attended district schools, said the trend is “a sad reality.”

“I was one of those arrivals when I was 8 years old,” Santos said. “And this country and our public schools — I’ll never get tired of saying it — gave me everything.”

Collectively, the enrollment declines in Miami-Dade erased about $70 million from the district’s budget, forcing administrators to scramble to cover the unexpected shortfall.

In northern Alabama, Albertville City Schools Supt. Bart Reeves said the district’s newcomer academy at a local high school hasn’t been enrolling any new students. Reeves’ district is home to one of Alabama’s largest Latino student populations, about 60% of all students.

Reeves said he expects the hit to his budget from enrollment declines will cost him about 12 teacher positions.

Denver Public Schools enrolled 400 new-to-country students in the summer, compared with 1,500 during the previous summer. Outside Chicago, Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 signed up 100 fewer new immigrant students. The Houston Independent School District shuttered the Las Americas Newcomer School, a program dedicated to children who are new to the U.S., after its enrollment fell to 21 students from 111 last year.

In California, the financial effect of enrollment decreases are expected to hit hardest in later years. But unexpected enrollment losses can immediately force schools to reduce their teaching staff and combine classes a month or more into the school year.

Missing 200 students in Inglewood

At the Inglewood Unified School District, about 200 of the newest newcomers did not show up as anticipated, a drop of more than 50% in a school system with about 6,000 students.

In 2023-24, Inglewood Unified enrolled 391 students living in the U.S. a year or less. The following year that number was 312. This year the number is 109.

As with L.A. Unified, the Inglewood district had planned for declining enrollment, but the drop was steeper than expected.

“I’m really worried about those 200 kids who aren’t here,” said Inglewood Supt. Jim Morris. “That really is alarming data.”

For the students in school, overall district attendance has improved slightly, part of a districtwide push to get all students to class more often.

“It’s critically important that students and families know that the school is a place that they can trust, that the school is a place where they’re safe, and that the school is a place where whatever needs they have — we’re going to do our best to meet those needs,” Morris said.

In L.A. Unified similar efforts are underway, including at Roybal, where a few students are being picked up by bus directly from home to quell fears over ongoing immigration enforcement.

“Our responsibility is to ensure every child — regardless of where they were born — feels safe in our schools,” Carvalho said. “We will continue to stand firmly with our immigrant communities and protect every student’s right to a welcoming, stable and supportive education.”

Payne writes for the Associated Press. AP reporters Bianca Vazquez Toness and Gisela Salomon contributed to this report.