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Community members packed a high school auditorium in Chelsea, Massachusetts, last month to oppose the school board鈥檚 plan to cut 70 positions, including reading coaches, special education staff and counselors. 

鈥淭hese support systems are what students really rely on,鈥� one girl told the board. 鈥淎s someone who struggles a lot with being overwhelmed and anxious, sometimes I just need someone to talk to.鈥�

The layoffs will help reduce an $8.6 million budget deficit, due in part to the loss of 350 students. 

Sarah Neville, a board member in the Boston-area district, knows one reason enrollment is down. Under federal law, districts can鈥檛 ask whether students are U.S. citizens, but almost 90% of the 5,700-students are Latino and 47% are English learners. The state education agency estimates that the population of English learners in Massachusetts schools has since 2024. Officials from Chelsea and other metro-area districts say as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted raids in last fall.

鈥淲e’re low hanging fruit for ICE because so many of our folks are undocumented,鈥� Neville said. 鈥淲hen they say, 鈥榃e’re going to go target Boston,鈥� you find the vans actually hanging out in Chelsea.鈥�

The district is among several across the country now confronting the financial impact of the Trump administration鈥檚 immigration enforcement efforts. Whether students are absent from school, families have been detained, or they鈥檝e left the district or the country on their own, the empty desks add up.

Districts no longer have federal COVID relief funds to fall back on, and many already saw steep enrollment declines during the pandemic. The Chelsea board is one of asking the legislature for one-time grants to help address the shortfall. With fixed costs like payroll and contracts with vendors, a sharp drop in enrollment 鈥渃reates chaos,鈥� Neville said.

In Texas, officials from , and several districts in the are among those who say the immigration crackdown has contributed to further enrollment loss and, with it, potential drops in state funding. 

Districts鈥� heightened concerns over finances come as conservatives increasingly argue that American taxpayers shouldn鈥檛 be footing the bill to educate undocumented students in the first place. 

During a heated , members of a House judiciary subcommittee argued that the U.S. Supreme Court should overturn , a landmark 1982 ruling in a Texas case that guaranteed children a right to a public education, regardless of citizenship status.

鈥淭he financial costs of Plyler are undoubtedly staggering, clearly representing a significant burden on localities,鈥� said Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, who chaired the hearing. 鈥淏ut it isn’t just fiscal costs we should be worried about. Our nation’s classrooms routinely deal with illegal alien students, many of whom know little to no English and may struggle with other learning disabilities.鈥�

Pointing to Census Bureau figures, a from the subcommittee estimated that educating non-citizen students in U.S. schools costs about $68 billion a year. But during the hearing, Democrats highlighted of providing students access to education, like $633 billion paid in state and local income taxes and contributions to the U.S. economy worth more than $2.7 trillion.

The witnesses included James Rogers, senior counselor with the conservative America First Legal Foundation, who called the Plyler opinion 鈥漞gregiously wrong from the start鈥� and an example of judicial overreach. He predicted that the current conservative majority on the court would overturn it if given the opportunity. Republicans in like have proposed legislation to collect students鈥� immigration status. If one of those bills passes, opponents are expected to challenge it in court.

But Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said that excluding undocumented students from school or charging tuition would mean 鈥渙nly certain classes of children whose parents can afford to pay are entitled to the blessings of liberty and the hope of a better future.鈥� 

Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, warned that at a time when chronic absenteeism remains above pre-pandemic levels, non-citizen children wouldn鈥檛 be the only ones out of school if the court overturned Plyler.

鈥淚t will extend beyond the families to peers and ultimately it will be impossible to enforce truancy laws,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ny child who doesn’t want to be in school will know to simply say 鈥業’m undocumented.鈥� 鈥�

The 鈥榖ottom line鈥�

For now, most Texas districts want to hang on to as many students as possible.

鈥淲hen you’re a rural school district, every kid has a big impact on your bottom line,鈥� said Kevin Brown, executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators. 鈥淲hen you lose five or 10 kids, you have to cut programming. You can’t cut teachers, so you have to start looking for other ways to do it.鈥�

He expects to see a request during next year鈥檚 legislative session to allow for some 鈥渢ransition period鈥� before funding drops, but 鈥渨hether something passes is another question.鈥�

In California, where state funding is based on districts鈥� average daily attendance, Gov. Gavin Newsom last October that would have added immigration enforcement as one of the emergencies that triggers a waiver of the funding rule. The change was unnecessary, he said.

In Minnesota, districts are still hoping for some relief. On their behalf, a national nonprofit to temporarily suspend a state law that requires districts to drop students from the rolls if they鈥檝e been absent for 15 straight days. The legislation allows exemptions for emergencies.

, in which the Trump administration deployed roughly 4,000 ICE agents to the Minneapolis area, 鈥渘o doubt qualifies as a calamity that would trigger application of the exemption,鈥� leaders of the National Center for Youth Law wrote to state House and Senate leaders last month. 

Fridley Public Schools, outside Minneapolis, has lost 20 students because of the 15-day rule.聽

鈥淪ome of our children have been in an apartment for 14 weeks and haven’t been able to leave,鈥� Superintendent Brenda Lewis said on a recent webinar. 

Roughly 100 more have left since the surge, possibly taking advantage of the state鈥檚 open enrollment policy to relocate to other districts. The loss means a $1 million hit to the district鈥檚 $51 million budget. The district also missed out on $131,000 in meal reimbursements from the federal government because low-income students weren鈥檛 in school to eat breakfast and lunch, Lewis said. 

Fridley鈥檚 enrollment would have been down another 400 students if the district hadn鈥檛 quickly implemented a virtual learning program, Lewis said. But federal agents used the device distribution process to apprehend those they suspected to be undocumented, she said. 

鈥淲e had ICE agents arresting people because they knew they were coming for the Chromebooks,鈥� said Lewis, whose district is part of against the Trump administration over its policy of allowing immigration enforcement near schools and other 鈥渟ensitive鈥� locations. 鈥淚CE agents will board your buses. They’ll board your vans. They’ll pull the vehicle over and start interviewing children about immigration status. By interviewing, I mean interrogating.鈥�

鈥業n-your-face presence鈥�

The Trump administration recently such actions in an effort to end a government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security. Julie Sugarman, who studies immigration policy affecting K-12 schools at the Migration Policy Institute, said a 鈥渓ess-aggressive鈥� approach near school grounds would likely lead some missing students to return. 

鈥淭he in-your-face presence absolutely is causing people to stay home,鈥� she said.

The Chicago Public Schools last fall saw steep declines in attendance that coincided with , according to by Kids First Chicago, an advocacy group, and the Coalition for Authentic Community Engagement, representing multiple nonprofits. On Sept. 29, the Monday after enforcement activity began, nearly 14,000 students at schools serving high percentages of Latino students were absent, the report showed. 

The district uses enrollment counts from the early part of the school year to make budget and staffing decisions. If students missed school on those days, or if the district eventually dropped students out for extended periods, those absences could affect funding, explained Hal Woods, chief of policy at Kids First Chicago.

District leaders can only estimate how many undocumented students are entering, or leaving, their schools, and that鈥檚 a problem, Mandy Drogin, a senior fellow at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, said in testimony before the House subcommittee. She blamed that warned districts against asking for students鈥� or parents鈥� citizenship status for enrollment purposes. 

While many English learners are U.S. citizens, she called out districts under state takeover, like and nearby , which have English learner populations above 30%, according to the state. 鈥淚llegal students,鈥� she said, are impacting schools as a whole. 

鈥淭eachers are being forced to 鈥� do Google Translate on their phones,鈥� she said. 鈥淎ll of these things obviously impact the total education system, and the taxpayers are left holding the bag.鈥�

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said immigration enforcement affects all students. He pointed to Willmar, Minnesota, about 150 miles west of the Twin Cities and the site of a Jennie-O turkey plant that employs many . It鈥檚 the town where ICE agents in a Mexican restaurant and then returned to detain the owners and a dishwasher. 

In December, as rumors of an ICE raid spread, hundreds of kids, including white students, stayed out of school, Superintendent Bill Adams . 

鈥淚 remember walking in the hallways going, 鈥楬oly God, where are all the kids?鈥欌�� said a district employee who declined to speak for attribution due to the sensitivity of the topic. 鈥淚t was eerie.鈥�

In October, Adams said enrollment in the 4,400-student district was down by over 170 students, amounting to a loss of more than $4 million. To make up for some of that gap, the district is it used to teach independent living skills, like cooking and doing the laundry, to older students with disabilities. 

鈥淚t’s just hit our community really bad,鈥� the employee said.  

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