Community members packed a high school auditorium in Chelsea, Massachusetts, last month to oppose the school board’s plan to cut 70 positions, including reading coaches, special education staff and counselors amidst an enrollment drop.

“These support systems are what students really rely on,” one girl told the board. “As someone who struggles a lot with being overwhelmed and anxious, sometimes I just need someone to talk to.”

The layoffs will help reduce an $8.6 million budget deficit, due in part to the loss of 350 students.

Sarah Neville, a board member in the Boston-area district, knows one reason enrollment is down. Under federal law, districts can’t ask whether students are U.S. citizens, but almost 90% of the 5,700-students are Latino and 47% are English learners. The state education agency estimates that the population of English learners in Massachusetts schools has dropped by 7,000 since 2024. Officials from Chelsea and other metro-area districts say absenteeism increased as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted raids in Boston last fall.

“We’re low hanging fruit for ICE because so many of our folks are undocumented,” Neville said. “When they say, ‘We’re going to go target Boston,’ you find the vans actually hanging out in Chelsea.

The district is among several across the country now confronting the financial impact of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. Whether students are absent from school, families have been detained, or they’ve left the district or the country on their own, the empty desks add up.

Districts no longer have federal COVID relief funds to fall back on, and many already saw steep enrollment declines during the pandemic. The Chelsea board is one of several in Massachusetts asking the legislature for one-time grants to help address the shortfall. With fixed costs like payroll and contracts with vendors, a sharp drop in enrollment “creates chaos,” Neville said.

In Texas, officials from Houston, San Antonio and several districts in the Rio Grande Valley are among those who say the immigration crackdown has contributed to further enrollment loss and, with it, potential drops in state funding.

Read the full article about ICE raids causing enrollment to drop by Linda Jacobson at The 74.