MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minneapolis school system will offer families the option of remote learning for a month, officials said Friday, responding to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out in a city where tensions are high over federal immigration enforcement.
Under the temporary plan, teachers will simultaneously deliver lessons from their classrooms to students in the classroom and at home, similar to the way many did during the COVID-19
pandemic.
Immigration enforcement in cities around the U.S. has led to dips in attendance, parents and educators say. Advocates in other cities facing federal interventions have sought remote learning options, particularly for immigrant families that might feel vulnerable, but Minneapolis appears to be one of the few districts to reintroduce the option of virtual learning.
“This meets a really important need for our students who are not able to come to school right now,” a Minneapolis school administrator wrote in an email to their staff late Thursday.
Administrators' emails to staff indicate the decision to offer remote learning wasn’t a quick one. They refer to long meetings with input from school principals and the teachers union, acknowledging the planning and coordination required to deliver virtual school. In light of the devastating academic and emotional impact remote learning had during the pandemic, some also see it as a last resort.
A desire to keep students engaged in school appeared to prevail.
“This will keep them safe and help them keep up with their work,” the school administrator explained in one of the emails obtained by The Associated Press. “It will also allow them to be counted present, so we don’t have a ton of dropouts next week.”
That Minneapolis, a district of nearly 30,000 students, would willingly offer remote learning again suggests a new level of fear after an onslaught of federal attention and conflict. There's been President Donald Trump’s verbal attacks on the Somali community living there, a pledge to send 2,000 federal immigration agents, and a federal agent's deadly shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three and a U.S. citizen, on Wednesday.
On the same day of the shooting, immigration enforcement agents detained someone outside a Minneapolis high school around dismissal time, which led to altercations with bystanders. The Minneapolis Federation of Educators said agents deployed tear gas and detained an educator before releasing them.
“We will not tolerate ICE inhibiting our city’s youth from their constitutional right to attend school safely or inhibiting educators from doing their job,” the union said.
Federal officials said agents had been pursuing a U.S. citizen who rammed a Border Patrol vehicle before a 5-mile (8-kilometer) chase that ended outside the school. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, who has been in Minneapolis this week, said on social media that protesters assaulted agents and there were four total arrests.
It used to be that school campuses were no-go zones for immigration arrests, but Trump dismissed that guidance early in his second term.
“The way ICE has escalated in our community has made it so that there are people who feel unsafe coming to and from school,” Natasha Dockter, first vice president of the local union representing Minneapolis Public School teachers. “We’ve, you know, heard concerns from our members, from families, and wanted to advocate that there is an option for remote learning.”
This fall, Chicago school board members called for a remote option during a federal intervention there, but Chicago Public Schools has resisted offering it. New York state last year allowed districts to offer virtual schooling to students afraid of Trump’s immigration crackdown, but it’s not clear how many districts took advantage of it.
One concern some school districts have raised is they are normally prohibited from asking families about their immigration status. If the school offers virtual learning for students worried about immigration enforcement, it could unintentionally identify that someone in their home is here illegally.
To get around this problem, advocates have urged districts to offer the option to everyone, not just students from immigrant homes.
“We are hoping and recommending for districts to have flexible options for all of their students. Learning doesn’t necessarily have to happen in the classroom,” said Viridiana Carrizales, chief executive officer of ImmSchools, a Texas-based group that consults with school districts on their policies for immigrant students.
Carrizales said she’s working with districts in New Jersey, New York and Texas on trying to help worried parents who are keeping children home from school and even withdrawing them.
The conversations have become more urgent in the last few weeks, she said, because school districts are losing students.
Some districts that already had ongoing virtual programs have seen an uptick in demand since Trump returned to office again. In the Portland, Oregon, suburb of Hillsboro, the school district has opened enrollment slots at its online academy, district spokesperson Beth Graser said.
In a statement Thursday, the Minnesota Department of Education said districts and charter schools can provide remote options for enrolled students.
“Plans for online instruction need to consider how the needs of all students can be met, including students with disabilities and students learning English,” Commissioner Willie Jett said.
Minneapolis public schools were closed Thursday and Friday because of the tumult, but the district directed teachers to report to their school building to receive more details from administrators about the online instruction option. The virtual option will be available until Feb. 12, the district said.
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Associated Press writer Claire Rush contributed to this report from Portland, Oregon. Vázquez Toness reported from Boston.
