Weeks After the Raid: The Immediate and Sustained Changes in Student Attendance Rates Following Immigration Arrests.

This article examines the immediate and sustained impacts of immigration enforcement actions—specifically immigration arrests—on student absenteeism in a predominantly Latinx school district in California between 2014 and 2018. Using weekly attendance data and a unique dataset of immigration arrests compiled from local media, the study employs interrupted time series and comparative interrupted time series analyses to show that weeks with large-scale immigration arrests correspond to significant spikes in absenteeism, with declines up to 10 percentage points among Latinx, socioeconomically disadvantaged, English learner, migrant, and disabled students. The findings highlight that these attendance declines are not only immediate but can accumulate over time, resulting in a sustained reduction in overall attendance rates, which has implications for educational equity, school funding, and policy accountability measures such as those under the Every Student Succeeds Act. The study underscores the need for educators and policymakers to recognize immigration enforcement as a form of community violence that disrupts student engagement and calls for targeted support and reconsideration of funding and accountability policies affecting vulnerable student populations.