Attendance had already been low for about a week at Laredo Elementary School in Aurora when federal immigration agents showed up at an apartment building down the street before school started Wednesday, according to teachers.

The first hour of classes that day was punctuated by the sound of a plane circling above and dark SUVs driving up and down the street, a teacher said. At one point, one of the SUVs parked next to the school’s crosswalk.

While some students in Nate Madson Dion’s fifth grade class were absent, most made it to class, where he said “they have people they trust, and they feel safe. But all that concern is still lurking.”

A third grader emailed her teacher to explain that she wasn’t at school because she hadn’t been able to leave her home because of the raids. “Hopefully, I’ll be back tomorrow,” she wrote, according to Madson Dion.

The Aurora school district had attendance of 89.44% on Wednesday and was at 92.25% the following day. According to Colorado Public Radio, attendance in the district had dipped to 79% on Jan. 30, the day the raids had been rumored to start.

In Denver schools, the district’s most recent lowest attendance date was Feb. 3 during a national movement for , but it had bounced back to about 86.9% on Feb. 5.

Madson Dion overheard his students having conversations about the raids last Thursday. A student who had been at the apartment building was telling the kids about it. He said seven people were taken from his building and some doors were knocked down.

Madson Dion said he stuck to most of his lessons for the day. He doesn’t guide any conversations about what’s happening outside, but lets students talk when they initiate conversations. He chimes in when he has information that could be helpful to students, he said.

“It’s super important for me to allow it to happen, while also not pressing it,” Madson Dion said. When a student was wondering what would happen if immigration agents knocked on his door, Madson Dion chimed in and told students, “Just don’t answer the door.”

Students already knew that, he said.

“Fifth graders know about warrants. Fifth graders shouldn’t have to know about warrants,” he said. “We have kids who are resilient in ways I wish they didn’t have to be.”

At nearby Hinkley High School, math teacher Beth Himes said her students had experienced many of the same things. Some had seen raids taking place and residents of apartment buildings hiding on rooftops.

“Students on their way to school had filmed people on top of a roof as they drove past the apartment complexes, and that was going around the school,” Himes said. “Students were all abuzz, they were very nervous, they were worried. Not necessarily for themselves, but for parents, other family, friends, neighbors.”

Her classroom has large windows through which students could see the immigration enforcement vehicles driving past.

The night of the raids was parent-teacher conference night at Hinkley.

Himes usually has between 12 and 14 parent meetings in a night. Last Wednesday, Himes only had six parent meetings. One parent had emailed her to ask for the information through email, and cited the raids for feeling unsafe to go meet Hines in person.

Most classes at Hinkley have gone on as normal, and while attendance is down, it hasn’t been significantly lower on any particular day, Himes said. Similar to at Laredo, she said she believes Hinkley students feel as safe as they can while they are at school. But getting to and from school can feel dangerous for them or their families.

“I think their anxiety goes up when they leave,” Himes said.

At Laredo, when an immigration SUV parked in the crosswalk in front of the school, some families felt uncomfortable crossing the street in front of that agent, so the families waited inside the school until they felt safe to leave again.

Teacher says it matters when leaders talk about immigration

In the nearby Adams 12 school district, the superintendent told his school board on Wednesday night that immigration concerns are taking a lot of time to address.

Superintendent Chris Gdowski said the district believed the parent of one Adams 12 student had been detained in Wednesday’s raids and that the child was in the temporary care of a neighbor.

Attendance had been down by as much as 5% at some Adams 12 schools, and the district was trying to problem-solve with families to find ways to get students back in classes, or find ways to keep them learning while at home, Gdowski said.

“It’s become a fairly significant part of many of our jobs on the security side in coordinating with our principals about what to do if this happens, and then there’s also fairly consistent communication needs that we have,” he said.

At a meeting the day after the raids, the Jeffco school board discussed the fears that seem to be keeping some children home from school. Although Jeffco didn’t discuss large attendance rate drops, staff told the board they will present recommendations for the superintendent in the next couple of weeks on how to help students who don’t feel safe coming into classes physically.

The board workshopped the on this Thursday to show support for immigrant and LGBTQ students who may be feeling unsafe. But board members struggled with some of the language, because they wondered what they could guarantee doing for students, especially as things keep changing.

Board member Paula Reed, was hesitant about saying the district won’t collect or share immigration information from students or families, because she said in the near future. Board members also wondered if they could control what happens outside their school buildings, and whether they should state that immigration actions that happen near schools are disruptive to students.

that is nearly identical to one the board approved in 2017 written with parent and student groups. It states that as one of the most diverse districts in the state, Aurora is dedicated to supporting and serving all students. The resolution includes updated demographic information showing that the district’s students now speak more than 160 different languages and that more than 42% of all students are learning English as a new language.

The resolution adds a requirement that Aurora schools update student emergency contact information twice a year instead of once per year and encourages families to include a non-family contact in case family members can’t pick up students.

Himes said the Aurora resolution matters because it supports school staff’s desire to keep students safe and to communicate that desire to the families and students themselves.

“It’s just been very well-communicated,” Himes said. “That’s the key.”

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at . 

California lawmakers are proposing steps to protect K-12 students and families from mass deportations — although the real value of those proposals may be symbolic.

A pair of bills in the Legislature —  and  — aim to keep federal agents from detaining undocumented students or their families on or near school property without a warrant. The bills are a response to President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to deport undocumented immigrants, a move which could have major consequences for schools in California, which funds its schools based on attendance and where  have at least one undocumented parent.

Both bills would make it harder and more time-consuming for agents to enter schools or day care centers. But they can only delay, not stop, arrests. 

“In no way can these bills override federal law,” said Kevin Johnson, a law professor at UC Davis. “But the bills respond to a great concern in the community that it’s not safe to take your children to school. … I can’t emphasize enough how important this is, how vulnerable undocumented immigrants feel right now.”

“In no way can these bills override federal law,” said Kevin Johnson, a law professor at UC Davis. “But the bills respond to a great concern in the community that it’s not safe to take your children to school. … I can’t emphasize enough how important this is, how vulnerable undocumented immigrants feel right now.”

AB 49, proposed by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat from Torrance, would require immigration agents to obtain written permission from the superintendent before coming onto school property. It also bars agents from being in rooms where children are present. SB 48, introduced by Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Democrat from Long Beach, would prohibit local police from cooperating with federal agents — such as assisting in arrests or providing information about families’ immigration status — within one mile of a school. It also bars schools from sharing student and family information with federal authorities. 

School districts have also doubled down on their efforts to protect students and families. Los Angeles Unified has partnered with legal aid organizations to assist families and instructed schools not to ask students about their immigration status. San Francisco Unified has .

“(San Francisco Unified) is a safe haven for all students regardless of citizenship status,” Superintendent Maria Su wrote to the community after the November election. “SFUSD restates our position that all students have the right to attend school regardless of their immigration status or that of their family members.”

Schools as safe havens

Schools have long been safe havens for immigrant students. Under a , public schools must enroll all students regardless of their immigration status and can’t charge tuition to students who aren’t legal residents. And since 2011, discourage agents from making immigration arrests at schools, hospitals, churches, courthouses and other “sensitive locations.”

But Trump said he plans to  guidelines, and the Heritage Foundation, which published the right-leaning Project 2025 manifesto, is encouraging states to . That could set up the possible overturn of the Supreme Court decision guaranteeing access to school for undocumented students. The foundation’s rationale is that government agencies such as schools are already overburdened and need to prioritize services for U.S. citizens.

“The (Biden) administration’s new version of America is nothing more than an open-border welfare state,” Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, . “No country can sustain or survive such a vision.”

Muratsuchi, chair of the Assembly Education Committee, said he was inspired to author AB 49 just after the election, when he listened to the concerns of immigrant students in the political science class he teaches at El Camino Community College in Torrance. 

“It became clear there was more and more fear among my students, not only for themselves but for their families. The fear of families being torn apart is very real,” Muratuschi said. “We want to send a strong message to our immigrant students that we’re going to do everything we can to protect them.”

‘Too scared to speak up’

For most undocumented families, deportation would mean a plunging into poverty and in many cases, violence. Nahomi, a high school senior in Fresno County whom CalMatters is identifying by her middle name because of her immigration status, described the threat of deportation as “a major worry for my family and I. Our lives could change completely in a blink of an eye.”

Nahomi and her parents arrived in California in 2011 from the city of Culiacan in Sinaloa, Mexico, an area plagued by . They initially planned to stay until Sinaloa became safer, but once they settled in the Central Valley they decided the risks of returning outweighed the risk of deportation, so they stayed. Nahomi’s father works in construction and her mother is a homemaker, raising Nahomi and her younger sister.

While she and her family fear deportation, Nahomi is not afraid to attend school. She said schools can help families know their rights and help children feel safe.

“I feel very welcomed and safe there,” she said. “It is a very diverse high school and I just feel like any other student. … (But) a lot of these families are probably too scared to speak up about doubts they might have.”

Politically unpopular?

Patricia Gándara, an education professor and co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, said the risk of federal agents arresting students at schools is probably small. It’s unclear how many children in K-12 schools are undocumented, but it’s probably a relatively small number, she said. In any case, immigration enforcement that affects children almost always sparks public outcry from both parties, she said. 

“Some people might say they’re anti-immigrant, but it’s another thing entirely when the family up the street, whom they’ve known for 20 years, suddenly gets deported, or your kid’s best friend gets deported,” said Gandara, who’s studied the topic extensively. “It’s politically very unpopular.”

Still, the proposed bills could send a powerful message that schools are safe places, she said. Immigration crackdowns can have a , a Stanford study found, which can lead to less funding for schools, particularly low-income schools that enroll large numbers of immigrant children. 

Immigration crackdowns can also lead to an increase in bullying, anxiety and general uncertainty on campus, not just for immigrant children but for everyone, Gándara said. Teachers, in particular, experience high levels of stress when their students’ safety is endangered, she said. 

“Schools are one of the last places immigrant families feel safe,” she said. “But as soon as (federal agents) move into schools, they’re not so safe any more. These bills say, ‘We’re not going to sit back and let this happen. Not all of government is against you.”

California ‘one of the best places to be’

Both bills are awaiting hearings in the Legislature. Tammy Lin, supervising attorney with the University of San Diego Immigration Clinic, expects California to continue to take steps to protect undocumented families, but political conflicts will be inevitable.

The incoming Trump administration is likely to battle California and other left-leaning states over immigration matters. Even within California, conflicts are likely to erupt between state leaders and those in more conservative regions, or even between agencies in the same area. In San Diego County, for example, the Board of Supervisors ordered the sheriff’s office to not notify federal immigration officers when it releases suspected undocumented inmates from jail, but the . 

Lin also said she wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an attempt to overturn the Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing education to undocumented children, potentially paving the way for other immigrants’ rights to be reversed. 

“It’s a slippery slope,” Lin said. “Immigrants know this, which is why there’s immense fear and uncertainty right now. But bills like these show that California is still one of the best places you can be.”

Suriyah Jones, a member of the CalMatters Youth Journalism Initiative, contributed to this story.

This was originally published on .

Whether a prospective student speaks Spanish, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Arabic or Mam — a Mayan language used in parts of Guatemala and Mexico — Oakland Unified School District’s enrollment office has a staffer who can help. 

If a newcomer communicates using a less common tongue like Dari and Pashto — spoken in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran — they’ll call in favors from local community groups to translate. 

What staffers won’t do, unlike in many other districts across the country, is allow a language divide to become a barrier to an immigrant student’s enrollment. 

“We take seriously our call to be a sanctuary district and a community school, not just in name, not just as a tagline or the sexy new initiative, but as an authentic calling,” said Kilian Betlach, the district’s executive director for enrollment.

The approach stands out compared to schools throughout the U.S.: A recent 74 investigation found older newcomers were rampantly denied admission, including hundreds of times in states where they have a legal right to attend based on their age. 

Our reporting showed schools allow a wide variety of staff to answer critical enrollment questions — often incorrectly — and are prone to steer these students to adult education, night school and GED programs. Many deny admission based on a lack of transcripts or other paperwork, obstacles Oakland tries hard to overcome. 

When enrollment requests to the 34,000-student Bay Area district are simple, involving students 17 or under who have at least some of the necessary paperwork, registration at the district begins and ends with enrollment office staff. 

But when a newcomer has no proof of address or birth certificate and is over age 18 — they’re sent down the hall to the Refugee and Asylee office, which handles the most challenging cases.

“We hope to be the front door to services in Oakland,” said Nate Dunstan, program manager for refugees and newcomers at the district. 

For many families, he said, his office is their first point of contact with any local governmental entity. 

“We want to help make it a smooth entry to our schools, make sure kids are placed in the right program … that is easy to get to and has supportive services,” he said. 

Marvin Rivas Zavala, who came to Oakland’s enrollment office on a recent sunny morning alongside his mother and cousin, was in the equivalent of 11th grade in El Salvador when he left for America. 

He arrived in the United States in late October speaking little English. The district would have placed the 17-year-old in a higher grade if he was proficient in the language, but Dunstan instead enrolled him in 10th to give the teen more time in high school.

While some new students are upset to see graduation pushed back, Rivas Zavala is focused on long-term goals: He wants to be fully prepared for college, he said, like the other young people in his family — including his brother and cousin — who have already enrolled in higher education in the U.S. and abroad.

“I want to do software engineering after high school,” he said with certainty. 

It took his family less than 30 minutes to register him. Staffers say they’re determined to make the process quick and easy. 

In their initial intake but after a child is enrolled, they ask about immigration status in the event that they can help — by providing, for example, the name of a legitimate immigration attorney — and make sense of foreign transcripts. 

If they have a relative in a particular high school, staffers might first send a new arrival there hoping it will encourage their attendance before they switch to a more appropriate setting. Oakland Unified might also place them on a campus where they can find peers from their homeland to ease their transition. 

Esmeralda Flores Paredes, 17 and from El Salvador, came to the United States on Sept. 8 and was in government detention in Texas for nearly a month before she was released to her sister in California on Oct. 4. 

She finished high school in El Salvador — even completing a few months of college there — and hopes to graduate high school here in a year.  

After that: “I want to keep studying,” said the young woman, who plans on working in the tourism industry. 

After a quick chat with enrollment staff, Flores Paredes was assigned to Castlemont High School and then transferred to another campus, Rudsdale Continuation High School, which has a program designed to make attendance and graduation attainable for older newcomers. 

Enrollment staff use students’ first visit to help them — and their families — apply for public health insurance and ask if they are facing a housing crisis or any other issue that could keep them from attending. 

“That’s our ultimate goal, that the student is in school,” Dunstan said. “But there are, of course, a million reasons why it would be hard for that to happen.”

Dunstan and his colleagues gave their cell phone numbers to several newcomers who came through the enrollment office earlier this year, telling them they were not only concerned about their registration, but their well-being. 

Seeking school admission can be anxiety provoking for non English-speaking families, who have no idea whether staff will accommodate them. Their enrollment requests come at a particularly perilous time: On the eve of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term of office, a fight he won after vilifying immigrants.

These students and families don’t know whether he will follow through on his pledge to rid the country of its roughly : While the promise seemed critical to his victory, it’s been criticized for its .  

“I mean, it’s difficult to see families overwhelmed about the election outcomes,” said Cristhian Pineda Diaz, an unaccompanied immigrant youth specialist. “It’s also difficult to hear students being afraid to be separated from their parents. But I’m hopeful because we will do our best job to help families in every way possible.”

New students leave with basic supplies, including backpacks, pens, pencils, binders, folders and notebooks — whatever local charities and other organizations provide — and when they come with younger siblings, they might also leave with diapers or new shoes. 

If they need immunizations and find the most popular clinic is backed up for months, enrollment staff will find other sites that can help. And if a family is overburdened by bills, the district can connect them with community-based organizations that can offer financial assistance.

In an effort to further ease the registration process, newcomers’ receiving schools are quickly notified about their enrollment, with students’ academic and immunization status almost immediately available through a shared database. 

Staff will also travel from the main enrollment office to another location in this 78-square-mile city that might be easier for newcomer families to reach.

That’s just the effort Oakland Unified makes for those students who actively pursue registration: It has an entirely different plan for those who don’t. 

Staffers also look for would-be students in the community. Qoc’avib Revolorio, another unaccompanied immigrant youth specialist, has, in the past, teamed up with Street Level Health Project, a local nonprofit that delivers food to day laborers at area pickup spots.

“Since that organization has a bit of street cred, I would join them on their rounds from 7:30 to 10 a.m.,” said Revolorio, who would make these trips prior to the start of each semester or just before the school marking periods would begin. “We would hand out flyers, shake hands, ask any of the laborers if they had children or nieces or nephews that just arrived … that we could help personally enroll in school.”

He’d use the opportunity, he said, to scope the crowd for younger faces, approach potential students with a smile, talk to them about learning English and about the district’s soccer program before he’d ask if they needed any help with immigration issues.  

Staff also regularly call former dropouts and ask why they are no longer attending and conduct home visits when necessary. Much of Dunstan’s work is funded by the California Department of Social Services. A host of other organizations offer further assistance to newcomers and their families: , for example, provides families with money after they attend a financial literacy class while contributes up to $2,000 toward rent.  

The district erects billboards to encourage families to enroll by visiting ChooseOUSD.org, runs targeted digital and Spanish radio ads that promote pre-K and transitional kindergarten, a bridge to elementary education that has been particularly beneficial for English learners. They even operate a booth at the local Día de los Muertos celebration, sharing similar information.

Oakland aims to reach families wherever they are and, to that end, technology is key, Betlach said. Its previous enrollment system wasn’t optimized for mobile, making it difficult for many newcomer families to register. 

“It looked like Netscape navigator,” he said, referring to the long-defunct web browser. “Low-income communities use all of their internet through the phone, so if your tools are not mobile enhanced, you are pushing out low-income users.”

Sometimes, enrollment staff said, it can take months, or even a year to convince students to pursue their education. In such cases, staffers might help them obtain work permits, find jobs, locate safer housing or child care so a teen is freed up to learn.

They try hard to make as few refusals as possible, recently admitting, for example, a 20-year-old from Guatemala with no high school credits. They fought for nine months to help her find a path to attendance.

The district welcomes her — and scores of others just like her — during a particularly difficult time, as it faces a projected next year and is wrestling with closing and consolidating schools. 

“There is a moral force to recognize and welcome all members of your community, not just those that fit into neat boxes or will help drive data-driven achievement narratives,” Betlach said. “We believe this, truly, even when no one is looking.”

This story was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.

They come to the enrollment office at 18, 19, or 20, often without transcripts, identification or immunizations. Some have massive gaps in their education and many speak little English. 

Any one of these would be reason enough for districts across the country to deny admission, but not here. 

With ample enrollment staff speaking a variety of languages, Oakland Unified School District offers newcomers a chance to register at one of six schools based upon their needs. And the 34,000-student district works hard to address other issues, too. 

No money for transportation? Here’s a bus pass. Worried about school supplies? Take this new backpack. Anxious about an upcoming court case? Here’s the name of a trustworthy immigration attorney. 

It was just what Jose Rafael Villegas Pena was hoping for, sitting inside the enrollment office on a recent afternoon. His 18-year-old twin brother was already studying in the district and told him about its supportive staff. 

Villegas Pena, who had been living with relatives in Texas, was both nervous and excited about this next chapter of his life. College is a must, he said, tapping his black high-top Converse All Stars on the floor. And Oakland Unified, his brother told him, would help him get there. 

“I need college,” said Villegas Pena, who came to the U.S. from El Salvador in January 2022. “I want to be a pilot.”

Oakland doesn’t have to do any of this. While California had in 2022 — and some of the most far-reaching laws to protect them — it provides no stipulation for general education students who wish to enroll in high school past the state’s compulsory attendance age of 18.

That additional time is critical to the older immigrant students Oakland administrators say they’re compelled to help.

“It is a moral mandate,” said Carmelita Reyes, a principal who has worked with such students for years. “It is not a state mandate that we serve these kids.”

But even in the 35 states where students have a legal right to attend high school at least until age 20, they are frequently turned away, ����Ӱ�� found in a recent investigation. 

The news outlet called hundreds of schools across the country asking if they would accept an older newcomer with limited English and significant interruptions in their schooling — exactly the type of student Oakland welcomes.

In an already xenophobic era, our story revealed pervasive hostility and suspicion toward these new arrivals. Donald Trump’s re-election might leave them further imperiled. The Oakland school community is on edge about his , which could send these students and their families directly into the path of chaos in their homeland. 

“Unsurprisingly, we’re seeing a lot of concern about their immigration case precarity, and anxiety about the future,” said Lauren Markham, director of the Oakland International High School Learning Lab. “We’ll need more legal services, more mental health services — all of this when the school district is ”&�Բ�����;

A drop in enrollment, meanwhile, could trigger further funding decreases, Markham said. But no one knows what to expect of a leader who used race-baiting and fear to help re-win his post but whose most ambitious deportation plans might be thwarted by their and .

Markham worked in Oakland schools when the first Trump administration imposed as part of its “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration. Thousands of children were taken from their parents in a calamitous and unpopular program that

“It’s so hard to read the tea leaves,” Markham said. “In the months after family separation began, our arrivals continued to be high. So, it’s really hard to say what the future holds.”

Staff and students aren’t in shock as they were when Trump was first elected in 2016: They know what it’s like to survive his administration, “to fight for human rights and basic protections,” she said, and they’ve weathered strongmen before — here and back home.

“I think we’re all just anticipatorily exhausted,” she said. 

In the meantime, Oakland, just 12 miles east of San Francisco, will continue making high school enrollment and graduation possible for this group of students in ways that are unlike much of the rest of the country — and the state of California itself.

‘We had to rethink high school’ 

Young immigrants were leaving Oakland’s comprehensive high schools at an alarming rate in the early 2000s. 

“Newcomers at the traditional large schools were dropping out massively,” said Reyes. “The schools were not designed to support them. The district was looking for something innovative that would better serve students.”

So, in 2007, it partnered with , which designs, develops and supports schools and programs for recent immigrants and refugees, to open a new site, Oakland International, to address their needs. 

And it worked for years until a massive uptick in far exceeded the school’s capacity. Oakland International, when full, enrolls approximately 400 students. 

“The district had to adapt,” Reyes said. “We had to rethink high school.”

Oakland expanded its newcomer programs at several sites but a certain subset of students — often Central American boys who immigrated when they were 16 or older and had missed some school back home — still weren’t making it to graduation, no matter which school they attended. 

In an effort to learn why, the district commissioned a study in 2017 asking roughly 50 dropouts what caused them to leave: They needed a far more flexible schedule, possibly with shorter hours, they said. 

So, the district opened another program, this one located at Rudsdale Continuation High School, specifically for newcomers. It’s since switched locations, but its mission has stayed the same. 

Reyes, who spent part of her honeymoon in Burma visiting nearby refugee camps and hospitals to better understand a subset of immigrant students arriving in her district, is its principal. 

“There is nothing pretty about educating newcomers,” said the Princeton and Columbia University graduate. “It’s not elegant and it’s not linear.”&�Բ�����;

The newcomer program at Rudsdale, which opened with 25 students but grew to 100 in just a few months, was built for those determined to learn English and earn a high school diploma. 

The staff offers wraparound services, taking students to the Social Security office, the courthouse, the eye doctor and local shelters when needed. Anything to keep them in school. 

“The social service element makes the rest of it work,” said Sara Green, a social worker at Rudsdale for nearly four years until July 2021. “You can’t expect these kids to come to school if their other needs are not met.”&�Բ�����;

Despite enormous obstacles, many persevere, Green said.

“I have never met a group of kids who were more incredibly focused on figuring it out and making it work,” she said. “They were the most enthusiastic group of young people. They just felt so grateful for getting to be in school.”

Emma Batten-Bowman, a former assistant principal at Rudsdale, was at the school when it opened.

“I had visitors from San Francisco, North Carolina and New York,” she said. “People were coming in constantly saying, ‘I can’t believe this exists. This is amazing. How did you get your district to do this?’ It actually doesn’t take that much: Every district has a continuation program. All we did was create this little wing.”

But the notion of designing schools and programs solely to deliver education more effectively to older immigrant students — and Green’s observation of how fiercely they grabbed hold of that chance — is in stark contrast to what ����Ӱ�� discovered in its undercover enrollment investigation. 

Senior reporter Jo Napolitano spent 16 months calling 630 high schools in every state and Washington, D.C., trying to enroll a fictitious 19-year-old named Hector Guerrero. Napolitano told school officials he was her nephew, newly arrived from Venezuela. 

Hector was rejected 330 times — including more than 200 instances in which he had a right to attend based upon his age. 

Of the 35 schools that Napolitano contacted in California, not a single one accepted him: 33 denied Hector and two others said they were likely to.

Dozens of school staffers from across the country — including those who ultimately enrolled our test student — told Napolitano Hector would never make it to graduation day.

“To be explicit, it’s going to be a waste of time,” said Jim Karedes, principal of Wisconsin’s Delavan-Darien High School. “We could babysit him and that’s about what it would be. It would not behoove him to go down this pathway. He is 100% going to be a dropout.”&�Բ�����;

Work, pay rent, go to school

Roughly 1.1 million people ages 18 to 20 entered the United States between 2012 and 2021, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Obtaining a high school diploma could help many prepare for college or the workforce, advocates say. But with so many demands on their time — including jobs and caring for younger siblings — the path to graduation is rarely easy. 

Rudsdale found a way to address students’ pain points with shorter school days and fewer required credits — 190 as opposed to the typical 230 — plus the added support from staff. It currently serves between 150 to 200 newcomers: It graduates students every 12 weeks and takes on new ones for the first nine weeks of each trimester. 

New arrivals to Oakland Unified, who have graduated and gone onto college, sometimes find themselves back there. Rafael Barrios, 25, who hails from El Salvador and graduated from Oakland International in 2017, earned his bachelor’s degree in linguistics and Spanish studies at UC Santa Cruz. He now works as program coordinator for Soccer Without Borders, a club credited for keeping many of Oakland Unified’s immigrant kids in school.  

Rudsdale has helped more than 250 people earn their diploma so far, including those who would never have that opportunity in a traditional high school setting, administrators said. 

In 2023-24, newcomers at Rudsdale had a 58.3% cohort graduation rate with 30.6% of those students still enrolled but not yet graduated and a dropout rate of 11.1%, Reyes said. Oakland Unified had a 79.5% cohort graduation rate in 2023-24 and a .

Belinda Perez Gomez, 20, of Guatemala, is determined to be among the graduates.

“School is helping me a lot in English,” said the aspiring nurse. “I like the teachers. They have patience, and when you can’t do something, they are there to help you.”&�Բ�����;

Perez Gomez, who lives with her sister, acknowledged it can take students like her more time to graduate because they have responsibilities typical high schoolers don’t: She pays $750 a month toward her rent and while her family is supportive, everyone is shouldering bills. 

Paula Rodriguez Tinjacá, 20, came to the United States eight months ago from Colombia and hopes to work for an airline. She had almost finished high school in her home country and enrolled at Rudsdale to learn English, earn her diploma and apply to college. 

“There is more opportunity here than in Colombia,” she said.

Upon its opening, a majority of students enrolled in Rudsdale’s newcomer program were between 18 and 21 and most came from Guatemala, followed by Honduras and El Salvador. 

According to a recent in-house survey conducted by the school, only 40% of Rudsdale students live with a parent — many stay with distant relatives or friends, some of whom they had never met before coming to America — and a majority pay rent in whole or in part. 

More than 60% miss school because of it. 

But none of the staffers at Rudsdale berate or count out those who skip class, arrive late or leave early. Teachers are grateful they can participate at all.

When a student fails to show up, staffers ask why and see if there is an obstacle they can remove. Some have tenuous living situations and move out of abusive homes with the school’s help. 

Nearly a third of Oakland Unified’s students are . Half speak another language at home and nearly 81% of all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a key indicator of poverty. 

The district currently serves 3,100 newcomers — including 206 refugees, 254 asylum seekers and 775 unaccompanied children. 

Batten-Bowman, the former assistant principal at Rudsdale, acknowledged that some of its older immigrant students could have attended adult education instead. 

“But adult education doesn’t offer a diploma,” she said. “It’s more just like classes. They have some great stuff, but it’s not high school. If they want to be in high school and have a high school experience, why wouldn’t I give it to them? This is something Oakland got right. We should be getting so much credit for identifying the need and creating an option that works for this group.”

A different approach to learning 

Eleven students sit down for an algebra class on a recent sun-drenched afternoon. On the board is a simple, affirmative statement: “I can solve any kind of multi-step equation.”

The room is crowded with several wide, white desks — all arranged in a crude U shape — that seat two students each. And the walls are nearly covered with posters relating basic mathematical concepts, including multiplication tables. 

A dozen small apples rest atop a microwave near the door alongside cartons of cereal for those who might have missed a meal: Rudsale, which opens a food pantry inside its cafeteria every week, won’t allow an empty stomach to interfere with a linear equation. 

Teacher Nicholas Nguyen speaks some Spanish but relies on Google translate to communicate with his students, often leaving them encouraging notes on his whiteboard. 

“You’ve been showing up at least 4 times a week which is really good considering you have to work,” he wrote to one learner. 

While he sometimes spoke to the class as a whole, Nguyen spent much of his time providing individual attention to those like Dilan Pinzon, 19 and from Colombia. Not the most engaged student at first, Pinzon blossomed into a diligent one who is now fully focused on college after learning he could play soccer there.

“I decided to come to high school because here there are new opportunities to graduate and learn more English and meet more people,” Pinzon said when math class ended. “What I want to do after graduating is study at college … and be able to play soccer, since I love it.”

When Reyes proposed, years ago, opening schools and programs to educate and graduate older students like Pinzon, her colleagues were flabbergasted. They asked if she thought it was appropriate or if she was somehow putting younger kids in harm’s way. 

“There were a lot of, ‘I would never do that,’ statements from other principals,” she recalled. “But we did it. And then when people came out to our school and saw our average graduate was close to 20 — a fleet of 19- and 20- and 21-year- olds — they asked, ‘What has that experience been like?’ ”

Reyes’s response surprised them. 

“I said, ‘It’s not the older kids who cause problems,’” she said. “If you are 19 and 20 years old, you can make a choice with your life. Am I going to go to work, sit on the couch or go to school? If you are going to come to school, humble yourself and forgo income to be with younger kids … you have made a commitment to yourself and you are pretty focused, by and large.” 

This story was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.