Los Angeles Unified School District and other districts see enrollment plummet due to immigration raids

The Royal Learning Center junior did well last school year, earning excellent grades. This year, as a senior, she came close to dropping out a few times and talked about leaving the United States and reuniting with her mother, who was deported to Guatemala over the summer.

Teacher Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona said the girl remains at school so far. But many students in similar situations do not.

Nationwide, immigration raids and border restrictions have led to K-12 enrollment declines that appear to be at least tens of thousands, affecting Los Angeles, San Diego, Miami and elsewhere, according to data provided by school district officials. The decline also reflects a lack of non-U.S.-born students, or “newcomers,” entering the U.S. public school system.

For students already enrolled in U.S. schools, the decline points to disruptions in learning and, in some districts, financial shortages.

“These declines reflect the climate of fear and instability created by the ongoing immigration crackdown, which undermines family stability, housing and mobility,” said Los Angeles schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho. “When families fear being seen, or when they cannot afford to stay in their communities, they are less likely to enroll, re-enroll, or stay in public schools.”

Cardona, who teaches ethnic studies and serves as coordinator of the film and television magnet program, said there are at least 200 fewer students than expected at Roybal, west of downtown Los Angeles. Before this year, the school had a waiting list for courses, she said.

“We’re not quite sure if some students are sheltering in place, working, or if they’ve been deported or self-deported,” Cardona said. “We’ve done our best to provide resources to help them, but for a lot of kids, we just don’t know what’s happening to them.”

Neither the U.S. Department of Education nor the Department of Homeland Security, which implements the Trump administration’s education and immigration policies, immediately responded to requests for comment.

Impact on Los Angeles Unified University

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, overall enrollment is down a little more than 4% compared to last year. That’s about 2% higher than forecasts based on factors other than immigration enforcement.

Carvalho said concerns in immigrant communities “are now exacerbating factors that are already in place that are driving enrollment declines across the state, including declining birth rates, rising housing costs and broader economic pressures.”

In a school system with nearly 400,000 students, the gap between this year’s expected decline and the actual decline was more than 7,000 students.

One indicator of the effectiveness of immigration enforcement is the number of “new immigrant” students.

New immigrants are defined as non-U.S.-born students who have attended any U.S. school for three years or less. This is an educational category and does not indicate whether the student is legally resident in the country. California schools do not collect information about legal status, and a 1982 Supreme Court ruling protects immigrant children’s rights to a public education.

At the end of the 2023-24 school year, Los Angeles Unified will have 21,997 new students, accounting for 5.2% of the student body. At the end of last year, the total number of students on campus was 19,110, accounting for 4.7% of the total enrollment, a decrease of 2,887 students from the previous year.

At the time, President Trump had been in office for about six months and immigration raids in Los Angeles spiked in June.

Enrollment trends have continued this fall, with recent data showing a further decrease of 1,768 new immigrants, bringing enrollment to 17,342, or 4.4% of total enrollment.

“While newcomers have historically been a vibrant and growing part of our school communities, their enrollment has declined significantly over the past three years, and the year-over-year decline reflects the uncertainty that many families are experiencing,” Carvalho said.

Cardona said the mother of a Royal student was detained during a summer raid at the Vernon factory where she worked and then quickly deported. The student is currently living with relatives and continues to attend classes with support from the school. But she also had to help care for two younger siblings and felt the pressure of finding a job.

“We were devastated when she said she was going to have to drop out,” Cardona said. “Obviously she’s good at it and works hard, but she’s just focused on making sure the funds are there so her siblings can be reunited with her mom.”

Regional data shows many newcomers expected to return have not.

At the end of the 2024-25 academic year, after accounting for graduates and families known to have relocated, a total of 18,232 new immigrant students will be enrolled and expected to return this fall. Of those, 16,668 returned, 8.5% lower than expected.

Broad impact on new immigrant students

In Santiago, Principal Fernando Hernandez has enrolled dozens of new students from across Latin America over the past few years. Many experienced the jungle of Darien Gap, which is fraught with danger, before setting up camp in the park near Perkins K-8 School.

About a third of the school’s students are homeless. Staff have become experts in supporting children facing adversity.

On November 13, 2025, Fernando Hernandez, principal of Perkins K-8 School in San Diego.

(Gregory Bull/AP)

But so far this school year, he has not recruited any new recruits. Other families haven’t returned yet when the new school year begins. Overall, the district’s enrollment is about the same as last year, a spokesman said. But at Hernandez’s school, the changes are palpable.

In Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida, which was formerly led by Carvalho, about 2,550 students have entered the district from other countries so far this school year, down from nearly 14,000 last year and more than 20,000 the year before. School board member Luisa Santos, who attends area schools, said the trend is “a sad reality.”

“I was one of them when I was 8 years old,” Santos said. “This country and our public schools — I will never tire of saying that — gave me everything.”

Overall, declining enrollment in Miami-Dade school districts has reduced the district’s budget by about $70 million, forcing administrators to scramble to make up for unexpected shortfalls.

In north Alabama, Albertville City Schools Superintendent. Bart Reeves said the district’s freshman academy at a local high school has yet to admit any new students. The Reeves School District has one of the largest Latino student populations in Alabama, accounting for approximately 60% of all students.

Reeves said he expects the budget impact of declining enrollment to cost him about a dozen teaching positions.

Denver Public Schools enrolled 400 new rural students this summer, compared with 1,500 students last summer. Outside of Chicago, enrollment in Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 dropped by 100 new immigrant students. The Houston Independent School District has closed Las Americas Newcomer School, a program that serves children new to the United States, after its enrollment dropped to 21 students from 111 last year.

In California, the financial impact of declining enrollment is expected to be hit hardest in the coming years. But unexpected enrollment losses could immediately force schools to reduce faculty and consolidate classes for a month or more during the school year.

200 students missing from Inglewood

In the Inglewood Unified School District, about 200 incoming students didn’t show up as expected, a drop of more than 50% in the school system of about 6,000 students.

In 2023-24, Inglewood Unified will enroll 391 students who have lived in the United States for one year or less. The next year the number was 312. This year the number is 109.

Like Los Angeles Unified, the Inglewood School District had planned to reduce enrollment, but the decline was larger than expected.

“I’m really worried about those 200 kids that are not here,” Inglewood Chief said. Jim Morris. “This is really shocking data.”

The district’s overall attendance rate improved slightly for current students, part of a district-wide effort to get all students in class more frequently.

“It’s critical that students and families know that school is a place they can trust, that school is a place they are safe, that school is a place to meet any of their needs, and we will do our best to meet those needs,” Morris said.

Similar efforts are underway at Los Angeles Unified, including in Roybal, where some students were bused directly from their homes to calm concerns about ongoing immigration enforcement.

“Our responsibility is to ensure that every child – no matter where they are born – feels safe in our schools,” Carvalho said. “We will continue to stand steadfastly with our immigrant communities to protect every student’s right to a welcoming, stable and supportive education.”

Payne wrote for The Associated Press. Associated Press writers Bianca Vazquez Tones and Gisela Solomon contributed to this report.