Every time Ana Ponce drives down the highway between Los Angeles and San Diego, she’s haunted by a childhood memory: Her night in lockup — the sterile white room, the sounds of crying, and the fear she might be lost.

Several decades later, Ponce is CEO of Camino Nuevo, a network of charter schools where a majority of children are from immigrant households. As the Trump administration ramps up arrests and border enforcement remains a hot-button issue, deportations — and the trauma they inflict on young people — have worked their way back into Ponce’s life.

Since several parents came forward about the deportation of their spouses last school year, the charter network has been grappling with ways to support the families they serve. Camino Nuevo has eight campuses serving about 3,600 students from pre-kindergarten through high school. Although the network doesn’t ask its students about their immigration status, about 90 percent of children come into the network as English language learners, said Nicole Brown, the principal at Camino Nuevo’s Kayne Siart campus.

For Carmen and other families in similar situations, school leaders addressed the trauma experienced by both students and their parents.

The school counselor and the student and family services coordinator led “community circles” so students could discuss their circumstances. Their mental health team offered counseling.

“Know Your Rights” workshops offered parents information about how to stay out of trouble with immigration authorities and how to navigate the system if they ever wound up in custody. In the event authorities picked them up, parents were instructed to create plans for their kids. Camino Nuevo also keeps a National Immigration Law Center tip sheet on its website to inform parents of their rights, along with a Department of Homeland Security fact sheet that says officials won’t target schools and other “sensitive locations” for enforcement.

Read the full article about grappling with immigration enforcement by Mark Keierleber at The 74.