Minneapolis appears to be one of the few school districts in the country to reintroduce virtual learning in direct response to immigration enforcement, as educators and advocates press districts nationwide for flexible options and attendance dips are reported across multiple cities.
The Minneapolis school district said Friday it will offer families the option of remote learning through Feb. 12, responding to concerns that children may feel unsafe attending school amid federal immigration enforcement operations in the city.
The temporary plan will have teachers simultaneously deliver lessons from classrooms to students attending in person and to those learning at home — a model many districts used during the COVID-19 pandemic. Minneapolis appears to be one of the few districts in the country to reintroduce the virtual option in direct response to immigration enforcement.
The decision followed a week of escalating federal activity in Minneapolis. On Wednesday, a federal agent fatally shot Renee Good, described by the Associated Press as a U.S. citizen and mother of three. On the same day, immigration enforcement agents detained someone outside Roosevelt High School around dismissal time, which led to altercations with bystanders.
The Minneapolis Federation of Educators said agents deployed tear gas during the Roosevelt High School incident and detained an educator before releasing them. Federal officials offered a competing account: Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino said on social media that protesters assaulted agents and there were four total arrests. Federal officials said agents had been pursuing a U.S. citizen who rammed a Border Patrol vehicle before a 5-mile (8-kilometer) chase that ended outside the school.
Minneapolis public schools, a district of nearly 30,000 students, closed Thursday and Friday after the incidents.
“The way ICE has escalated in our community has made it so that there are people who feel unsafe coming to and from school,” said Natasha Dockter, first vice president of the local union representing Minneapolis public school teachers. “We’ve, you know, heard concerns from our members, from families, and wanted to advocate that there is an option for remote learning.”
School administrators’ emails to staff, obtained by the Associated Press, indicate the decision to offer remote learning was not made quickly. The emails reference long meetings that included input from school principals and the teachers union.
“This meets a really important need for our students who are not able to come to school right now,” one Minneapolis school administrator wrote in an email to staff Thursday.
School campuses no longer off-limits
For years, school campuses were treated as no-go zones for immigration arrests. President Trump dismissed that guidance early in his second term.
The week’s events in Minneapolis also followed Trump’s verbal attacks on the city’s Somali community and a pledge to send 2,000 federal immigration agents to the region, according to the Associated Press.
Boisey Corvah, a 15-year-old sophomore at South High School, said students have been sharing videos on social media of the shooting and the Roosevelt High School incident. He said he worries especially about his Latino friends.
“They’re probably going to have to go straight home, you know. They won’t be able to hang out with their friends,” Corvah said.
Other districts have weighed options
Attendance dips tied to federal immigration enforcement have been reported by parents and educators in cities across the country, according to the AP.
In Chicago, school board members called for a remote option during a federal intervention there, but Chicago Public Schools has resisted offering it. New York state last year allowed districts to offer virtual schooling to students concerned about the administration’s immigration enforcement, though it was not clear how many districts took advantage of that option.
In Hillsboro, Oregon, a suburb of Portland, the school district opened enrollment slots at its online academy after seeing increased demand since Trump returned to office, district spokesperson Beth Graser told the AP.
Viridiana Carrizales, chief executive officer of ImmSchools, a Texas-based organization that consults with school districts on immigrant-student policies, said she is working with districts in New Jersey, New York, and Texas on how to support families keeping children home.
“We are hoping and recommending for districts to have flexible options for all of their students,” Carrizales said. “Learning doesn’t necessarily have to happen in the classroom.”
Advocates have urged districts offering virtual options in response to immigration enforcement concerns to make those options available to all students — not only those from immigrant households — to avoid inadvertently identifying families with members who are in the country without legal status.
Minnesota Education Commissioner Willie Jett said in a statement Thursday that districts and charter schools can provide remote options for enrolled students. “Plans for online instruction need to consider how the needs of all students can be met, including students with disabilities and students learning English,” Jett said.