As U.S. Border Patrol officers and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents accelerate the pace of apprehending allegedly undocumented individuals in Waukegan and North Chicago, more and more parents are afraid to send their children to school or take them there.
Some families are pushing for remote learning as was done during the coronavirus pandemic, but now school districts can only have five e-learning days during the academic year. Local members of the Illinois General Assembly are exploring a fix.
North Chicago School District 187 Superintendent John Price has a solution. There are times students can have a prolonged absence, which may include hospitalization. Price said the district has ways to keep those youngsters up to date with their schoolwork.
“It only happens a few times a year a student is in the hospital or too sick to attend school,” Price said. “We come to them with the materials they need to do the work so they are caught up when they come back to school.”
Educators and lawmakers are currently seeking solutions to enable students in Waukegan and North Chicago to maintain their schoolwork in light of mounting fear in the community over the methods of President Donald Trump’s administration to deport undocumented individuals.
In the past week and sometimes longer, attendance has dipped both in District 187 and Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 as fear of being scooped up by ICE or border patrol agents mounts.
District 60 Superintendent Theresa Plascencia said in an email Thursday that the first noticeable dip in attendance occurred the week of Oct. 6, when there was a 3% drop in the number of children in school. Before then, it remained normal.
Price said the reduced attendance was noticeable this week, with only 57% of the students at Evelyn Aleander Elementary School in the building. Overall, attendance was 85% the past week over the district’s six schools, when it is normally between 90% and 95%.
When the after-school programs were dismissed at Evelyn Alexander on Thursday, Price was standing at the corner of 16th and Adams streets, guiding families and giving them assurance personally. Eight people were apprehended by ICE or border patrol agents Saturday through Monday, two blocks away.
“We want families to feel safe when they are leaving school, especially leaving safer school programs,” Price said of his presence at the school Thursday afternoon. “We are increasing our support to schools during departure times and offering additional counseling to students and staff who may need more support.”
Plascencia said fear started to grow in the community in late January when the Trump administration first began its accelerated deportation effort. It became more intense last month when Midway Blitz began.
“The fear is understandable given what’s happening in our community and others like it,” Plascencia said. “A very real concern we’ve heard from many of our families and staff relates to how enforcement actions are being carried out and who is being approached, which has added to the uncertainty and stress many are feeling.”
A number of families have approached Plascencia about remote schooling for those afraid to come to class or whose parents are afraid to leave home to bring them. She said in an email to the community the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) only allows five e-learning days a year due to weather or an emergency.
“With an uncertain future ahead, we do not plan not use the five emergency days at this time,” Plascencia said in the email. “While we recognize our community’s concerns, our priority remains providing safe, high-quality, in-person learning for our students.”
Though e-learning is limited to five days during a school year now, state Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, and state Sen. Mary Edly-Allen, D-Libertyville, are investigating what can be done to allow additional remote learning while intensive immigration enforcement continues.
“This is an emergency situation,” Johnson said. “People are afraid to leave their homes. Children are afraid to go to school. Parents are afraid to take them to school. We need to give (the schools) the tools to make the best decision. We don’t want anyone kidnapped (by ICE) on their way to school.”
Edly-Allen said in a text that she and some of her colleagues are working closely with ISBE to find ways to keep children safe going to, attending, and coming home from school. Remote learning is a possibility.
“As these ICE raids become more and more frequent, especially around schools, we need to consider some flexibility, especially by those schools that are hardest hit,” Edly-Allen said in the text. “Our students should not be afraid to attend school, and currently that’s what’s happening.”
Price said he is reluctant to use remote schooling. It was a way to educate students during the pandemic when everyone had to isolate, but it had its downside. Children fell behind, and it took time to bring them back to where they should be academically,
“The best place for a child to learn is in school,” Price said.
