Supporting Undocumented Students While "Staying in Our Lane": District Response to Immigration Policy

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Educational Policies and Reforms: Reactions, Responses, and Adaptations

Abstract

There is an urgent need to investigate how K-12 school districts as systems respond to immigration policy. Drawing from concepts from immigration theory (i.e., contexts of reception, Portes & Rumbaut, 2006) and organizational theory (loosely-coupled systems, Weick, 1976), we ask: How do central office staff respond to changing federal immigration policies? Data sources include an all-staff survey from one district (n = 1049) and qualitative interviews (n=37). We found that when mitigating deportation-related threats, central office staff standardized procedures to increase student protections yet continually emphasized the need to draw boundaries (to “stay in our lane”). Yet they simultaneously supported innovation with post-secondary supports. Districts as organizations may diversify tactics to manage the complexity of immigration in schools.

Authors

• Dafney Blanca Dabach, University of Washington - Seattle

• Brian Tauzel, University of Washington - Seattle

• Rebecca J. Lowenhaupt, Boston College