By Zaidee Stavely, EdSource
This time of year, Oakland schools are usually enrolling new immigrant students every day, sometimes opening up new classes to fit them all in.
Not this year.
“It’s almost come to a screeching halt,” said Nicole Knight, executive director of English Language Learner and Multilingual Achievement for the Oakland Unified School District. “In all of my time, I have not seen anything like this.”
Oakland Unified and many other districts across California are reporting a sharp decrease in recently arrived immigrant students, sparking worries that newcomer programs could be scaled back, leaving other new immigrant students in mainstream programs without the support they need to thrive in school.
The drop in new immigrant students is likely due to changes in federal immigration policies that have sharply curtailed the number of border crossings since early 2025, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The number of new immigrant students who have been in the U.S. for less than three years, often referred to as newcomers, had previously been increasing statewide for several years and hit a record high last school year with 236,958 students — equivalent to 1 in every 25 California public school students. The number of new immigrant students for the 2025-26 school year is not yet available.
“And then we suddenly got the whiplash of simultaneously restrictive border policies, the ending of refugee programs effectively, and severe curtailment of historic asylum programs,” said Sam Finn, director of the California Newcomer Network, which provides support for teachers and districts statewide.
“There are real fears that newcomer staff and newcomer programs will be so cut that the newcomers that remain, of which there will still be very many, will not receive accessible education,” Finn said.
Oakland Unified began building up programs for new immigrant students beginning in 2012, as more and more students began enrolling. The district added newcomer teachers in elementary, middle and high schools to help newcomers learn English and catch up with academic content, and social workers who provide mental health services and connect students with legal aid, housing and other resources. Knight said the growing newcomer population has helped stem the district’s overall enrollment declines.
But after years of expanding these programs, Oakland school leaders are now forced to consider shrinking them. Knight said the district may have to cut some staff and consolidate programs, possibly reducing the number of middle and high schools that offer newcomer services and classes from 17 to six.
If the district does not consolidate the programs, Knight said some newcomer students may have to enroll in mainstream classes.
“Some do fine and excel, but some do not and get frustrated and may even drop out,” she said.
The Elk Grove Unified School District, near Sacramento, has not seen a decline yet in the number of new immigrant students, according to Lucy Bollinger, who oversees Newcomer Welcome Centers in the district. But she said district leaders are paying close attention because they foresee a possible decline in the future.
One of the largest populations of immigrant students in Elk Grove is from Afghanistan, many of whom immigrated to the U.S. after the U.S. military forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. Many of these students are children of family members with special immigrant visas for Afghans who worked for the U.S. government or military. However, the State Department ordered that visas no longer be issued to Afghan nationals after the shooting of two National Guard service members last month. Bollinger said the district anticipates the number of new students from the country to drop following that change.
Bollinger said fear of immigration enforcement has also pushed more immigrant families to avoid attending school events and meetings, and pushed more immigrant students to enroll in online programs. She has also noticed more families writing that they only speak English on the Home Language Survey, even when they speak another language at home.
“We’ve heard from teachers, principals, other staff, and interpreters across the district who are speaking about the great amount of fear,” Bollinger said.
At the same time, the district is seeing some new immigrant students enrolling in the district after moving from other areas of California or other states because of immigration raids.
Follow us for more stories like this
CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.