The Abridged version:
- School districts across the Sacramento region either have or are in the process of implementing policies to restrict federal immigration enforcement agents from entering campus.
- The updates follow new state guidance, amid escalating tensions nationwide. There have not been any reported incidents so far in the Sacramento area of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on K-12 school grounds.
- Some teachers and parents are wary, though, about how much board policy would be able to protect against ICE.
- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said it expects detainments at schools to be “extremely rare.”
Hundreds of desks sat empty last Friday, as students in and around Sacramento walked out of class, off of campus and onto state Capitol grounds.
Their display — notable for its size and the younger age of its organizers — was part of a national opposition effort against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A teenager walking down Capitol Mall held up a yellow poster: “We are missing our lesson to teach you one.”
On any other day, when students are in class, they can generally expect to be in a space guarded from ICE — at least in principle.
Immigration-related detainments have surged under the Trump administration, including in California. Last August, officers detained a 15-year-old student at gunpoint outside of a Los Angeles County high school.
And national tensions heightened in January after agents detained a 5-year-old boy in Minnesota outside his home after school. He was released this week from a detention center in Texas.
DHS says school arrests ‘extremely rare’
Federal officers require supervisor approval before conducting any arrests at a school, according to a Department of Homeland Security media release from September. The department expects those situations to be “extremely rare.” Spokespeople for ICE did not respond to a request for comment from Abridged.
There have yet to be any reported incidents on school grounds in the Sacramento area, a spokesperson for the California Teachers Association confirmed.
California mandates limits on ICE cooperation
Parents and educators say they are braced for conflict.
Staff at school districts across California are prohibited from assisting immigration enforcement, except in specified circumstances, based on multiple state laws.
In 2017, during the first Trump administration, California lawmakers passed a law limiting schools from collecting data on students’ immigration status and requiring districts to implement policies curbing cooperation with officers.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed follow-up legislation, requiring updates to those local policies by March 1, 2026. Districts must have revised guidelines blocking immigration officers without a valid court order. Administrators must also spell out expectations for staff in the event of ICE on campus.
Local policies fall in line
The school board at Woodland Joint Unified is set to update its policy later this week, in line with state guidance.
The proposed addition would bar any “officer or employee of an agency conducting immigration enforcement” from accessing areas of the school without a warrant, subpoena or court order.
Across the four-county region, school districts either have comparable policies or are in the process of revising them. Washington Unified in West Sacramento, Folsom-Cordova Unified and Rocklin Unified are among those who instruct staff to notify on-campus police and administrators as soon as they spot federal officers.
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Sacramento City Unified was one of the first local districts to implement protections against ICE on campus. Theirs was a model for others to follow statewide, according to former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.
“We feel confident that we have put every protection in place,” said Trustee Jasjit Singh. “And yet, we know that ICE is not following the rules.”
The board will start the process of reviewing current guidelines during its meeting Thursday. The goal, according to the agenda, is to “update and strengthen the language of the policy.”
“If ICE was to barge onto campus,” Singh told Abridged, “(and) hypothetically a staff member was to get in the way, we’re going to protect said staff member from any sort of litigation or anything else that comes up.”
‘Nice in theory’
Will Alpers has been a substitute teacher in Sacramento City Unified for three years. He said he hopes that an event like what happened in Los Angeles or Minnesota never occurs in Sacramento.
But, “in a morbid way, I’m surprised that it has not happened here,” Alpers said.
Like other districts in the region and state, Sacramento City Unified instructs staff to ask for a warrant before letting any immigration agent enter campus.
If an officer lacks proper documentation but forces their way onto school grounds anyway, policy advises school employees to not stand in the way.
“If I were in the classroom and agents came in, in a worst-case scenario, I don’t think I would have any recourse other than to comply with the agents,” Alpers said.
Adriana Torres, mother of two Sacramento City Unified students, said she wonders how much local officials and sanctuary city designations will help in the face of federal authority.
“It’s nice in theory,” she said of the school district’s longstanding restrictions on ICE.
Torres was at the student-led protest Friday, attending in place of her daughters who she said were too afraid to join the crowd themselves.
“I am not generally fearful of what’s happening in Sacramento,” Torres said. “It’s more so the bigger picture of what’s going on in the country.”
Savannah Kuchar is a reporter covering education. She came to Sacramento to be a part of the Abridged team and contribute to a crucial local news source.