Millions of young people in the United States are children of immigrant families. All students in the U.S. have a right to public education, “regardless of a child’s or guardian’s citizenship, immigration status, or English language proficiency. These rights were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in its landmark 1982 decision in Plyler v. Doe.”
In addition to the challenges adjusting to a new country and culture and being fully included in schools, many immigrant children feel high levels of fear and anxiety right now due to the current anti-immigrant political environment. In families without immigration documentation, the fear of family separation, arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), imprisonment and deportation cause challenges and stress among young people and their families that can affect academic success, attendance and parental engagement.
Learn more about immigrant students’ rights, public schools’ obligations to immigrant students, and resources for families. We created this resource page to collect and share resources for families, educators and all community members, and we’ll continue to update this page. Many of these resources are available in multiple languages.
Help protect all our children.
[Updated April 2025]
students’ rights and supportive schools
Protecting Immigrant Students’ Rights to a Public Education
These resources from the Southern Poverty Law Center include information for families and advocates and for educators and school administrators on immigrant students’ rights and public schools’ obligations.
We Have Rights
This website provides information for immigrant communities about their rights, including their rights in interactions with ICE. This video series offers real-life examples of what to do when ICE is in their homes and communities and if ICE arrests them.
Protecting Our Students | American Federation of Teachers
These resources from AFT include Know Your Rights information for families and information for educators to support students and families, including helping to prepare and respond to ICE raids.
How to Support Immigrant Students and Families
This guide from Colorín Colorado offers multiple resources and strategies for families and educators in schools and early childhood programs to support immigrant students and their families at this critical time.
Re-Imagining Migration
This website offers resources to “advance the education and well-being of immigrant-origin youth, decrease bias and hatred against young people of diverse origins, and help rising generations develop the critical understanding and empathy necessary to build and sustain welcoming and inclusive communities.”
ImmSchools
This website offers resources for immigrant families and educators on students’ rights and how educators can support immigrant children and families.
Supporting and Affirming Immigrant Students and Families
Experts from ImmSchools and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project lead this 2022 webinar on supporting immigrant students and families.
Higher Ed Immigration Portal
This portal highlights important information on access to higher education for undocumented students, including access to state financial aid and professional and occupational licensure policies.
Special Education and Your Child: FAQs for Multilingual Families
This guide from Colorín Colorado can help immigrant and multilingual families better understand how to navigate the special education process and services.
Helping Your Child With a Disability Get a Good Education (Louisiana and Mississippi)
These state-specific SPLC guides can help parents navigate the process of securing a good education for a child with disabilities.
Civil Rights Principles for Multilingual Learner Education
This guide helps educators understand how they can protect the civil rights of immigrant and multilingual learners and create an equitable education system for them. Each principle aims to ensure that students and their families fully participate in the education ecosystem.
Teaching About Immigration
This list from Social Justice Books recommends anti-bias books on immigration and the immigrant experience. There are recommended books for K-12 as well as suggestions for educators.
Best Practices for Serving English Language Learners and their Families
With sections centered on instruction, classroom culture, policies, and family and community engagement, this Learning for Justice guide is packed with recommendations that can be applied across the school building. This guide also contains important information about policies around language access.
Fifteen Things Educators, School Support Staff and Communities Can Do To Help Protect Undocumented Students and Their Families
The AFT website offers more resources for families, educators and communities.
The following recommendations are from AFT’s Protecting Our Students and Families Toolkit.
- Inform students and their families of their rights.
- Stress the importance of taking proactive steps to ensure the safety and well-being of children and entire communities.
- Distribute “know your rights” materials to students and communities about what to do if a raid occurs or an individual is detained.
- Find out if there is a local immigration raid rapid response team in your community. These teams usually consist of attorneys, media personnel and community leaders who may be able to provide support.
- Partner with a pro bono attorney, legal aid organization or immigrant rights organization to schedule a “know your rights” workshop on campus to inform students and families about their rights.
- Provide a safe place for students to wait if a parent or sibling has been detained.
- Provide counseling for students who have had a family member detained by ICE.
- Maintain a list of resources, such as the names of social workers, pro bono attorneys and local immigration advocates and organizations, that can be shared with your students and their families.
- Identify someone at your school who can serve as the immigration resource advocate in your building or on your campus.
- Work with parents to develop a family immigration raid emergency plan.
- Make your school an ICE-free safe zone by pushing for policies that protect student privacy and records.
- Work with your school board to pass a resolution affirming schools as safe havens and welcoming places of learning for all students, distancing the schools from enforcement actions that separate families.
- Issue statements condemning raids and calling for the immediate release of students.
- Get involved with local civil, human and immigrant rights groups and create a list of resources to help undocumented students access private scholarships, fellowships and job opportunities.
- Pledge to support and work with undocumented students and families.
Learning for Justice: Understanding the Issues
Becoming a Village
[2024] This family-school-community partnerships model emphasizes a liberatory, whole-child approach and collective effort to nurturing all our children.
Community Organizing Uplifts Immigrant Students
[2022] Tapping into their own agency and communities, immigrant students and their families are finding ways to mitigate serious obstacles.
School as Sanctuary
[2020] Immigrant and refugee students and families are under threat. Many schools have joined a movement to protect them. The accompanying toolkit from 2018 offers concrete steps to incorporate tenets of sanctuary schools into your learning space.
The School-to-Deportation Pipeline
[2018] When immigration enforcement became more aggressive, schools became increasingly risky places for undocumented students. Learn more about the school-to-deportation pipeline—including recommendations for disrupting it.
This Is Not a Drill
[2018] Educators across the country are taking action when ICE raids happen in their communities. Here’s how you can stand with undocumented students and families—whether or not you live in a vulnerable community.
Ten Strategies for Supporting Immigrant Students and Families
The Colorín Colorado page offers more information about these strategies to support students, build partnership with families and address critical concerns.
- Let all students and families know that they are valued members of the community.
- Create different channels for communication in families' languages.
- Consider creating outreach teams.
- Learn more about the ways immigration issues impact students.
- Look for ways to provide social and emotional support for immigrant students.
- Help families keep their emergency contact information updated.
- Make a plan for caring for children whose caregivers are detained during the school day.
- Ask for guidance on relevant immigration policies.
- Provide opportunities for families to ask questions.
- Reach out to community organizations that represent and serve your families.
Consider how you can support the immigrant children and families in your schools and communities.