How one Minnesota school is bouncing back after the ICE surge

## Summary
National How one Minnesota school is bouncing back after the ICE surge March 22, 2026 4:00 AM ET Meg Anderson Students walk from the bus to their elementary school in St. Tim Evans for NPR hide caption toggle caption Tim Evans for NPR On the top floor of a Spanish immersion elementary school in St. Tim Evans for NPR hide caption toggle caption Tim Evans for NPR Amanda, the school principal, says some kids didn't want to come back. "They are fearful that their parents are going to be taken while they are in school," she says. "Not that they can do anything while they're at home, right? So we help." Hodges, the University of Minnesota researcher, says community support like that can serve as a protective barrier for children. "Kids are going to be alright if our community is able to be alright," Hodges says. "The most important thing that the grownup world can do to protect children's development in light of ICE surges is to prevent this from happening again." On the first day back at school from online learning, Ms.

## Article Content
National
How one Minnesota school is bouncing back after the ICE surge
March 22, 2026
4:00 AM ET
Meg Anderson
Students walk from the bus to their elementary school in St. Paul, Minn., on March 18. For many students, it was the first week back after nearly two months of online learning.
Tim Evans for NPR
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Tim Evans for NPR
On the top floor of a Spanish immersion elementary school in St. Paul, Minn., a classroom of fifth graders is immersed in a world of damsels in distress and knights slaying giants.
Their teacher, Ms. A, is walking them through a lesson on
Don Quixote
. NPR is only using first names or initials for people at this school and are not naming the school because the staff fears the federal government could target them.
Ms. A asks her class to discuss what the word "enchantment" means. The students circle inward at their tables. Above them, flags from Latin American countries are strung along the ceiling. Most of the kids here are Latino.
Enchantment, one student answers, is like magic, like a spell. Spoiler alert on this 400-year-old novel, but Don Quixote doesn't actually slay any giants or rescue any princesses. It's all in his head. Still, Ms. A thinks her students can make connections to their own lives.
"With
Don Quixote
, it's like seeing how this knight, it's not just that he is crazy and out of his mind, but also that he just wants to do good in the world," she says.
Ms. A, a teacher at the elementary school, stands for a portrait in her classroom in St. Paul, Minn., on March 18. She says she wants to create a space for students to feel safe and loved.
Tim Evans for NPR
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Tim Evans for NPR
You can't always fix the world's problems, she says, but you can try to help others.
That's the message she hopes her students take away. They've been through a lot. This winter, thousands of federal immigration officers descended on their state as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation and detention campaign. Families hid in their homes, getting groceries delivered by neighbors. Nonwhite citizens began carrying their passports in case they were stopped. Protesters were subjected to tear gas and pepper balls. Many children stopped going to school.
The immigration surge in Minnesota ended last month, but its effects on children linger. Just a few days before Ms. A's
Don Quixote
lesson, her classroom was a lot emptier. During the height of the operation, the school added a virtual option, and more than a third of the students opted in.
"In person, they would talk and participate and ask questions and all of that. They went online and they didn't say a word. They didn't do anything. Their faces were not the same," Ms. A says.
Early childhood experts say that reaction makes sense. Hopewell Hodges, a researcher at the University of Minnesota who studies the developmental resilience of children, says a child's world is like the rings of a tree, with the child at the center.
"In order to develop well, the child needs to be embedded in these healthy systems: caregiving systems, classrooms, neighborhoods, farther out are entire economies, cities," Hodges says.
When any of those are disrupted, the effects ripple inward.
"The young ones are often developmentally bearing the brunt of conflicts and tensions and stresses that originate in the adult world," she says.
In St. Paul, nearly two months of virtual learning ended just this week, but at the Spanish immersion school, not every student came back: One family is now in El Salvador, others are in Mexico, and others moved to Nebraska and California, states that felt safer for them. Another family is heading back to Venezuela soon.
Amanda, the principal of the elementary school, sits for a portrait in her office in St. Paul, Minn., on March 18. She says many students are coming to school with heightened anxiety in the aftermath of the ICE surge.
Tim Evans for NPR
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Tim Evans for NPR
Amanda, the school principal, says some kids didn't want to come back.
"They are fearful that their parents are going to be taken while they are in school," she says. "Not that they can do anything while they're at home, right? But levels of stress are just really spiking in our kids."
She says it feels like the school is starting over, like half the year didn't happen.
Many families continue to fear ICE. There are still reports of ICE agents in the neighborhood, though fewer now than before. On the day NPR visited, a school district security vehicle sat idling outside the entrance, because a community member had reported an ICE vehicle nearby.
And about half of the staff here are Latino. Amanda, who is originally from Mexico City, began carrying her passport with her. Ms. A, who is Puerto Rican, says she spoke to her seven-year-old daughter about what to do if she is detained.
Ellah, the daughter of the principal and a student at the school, stands for a portrait in St. Paul, Minn., on March 18.

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- So we help." Hodges, the University of Minnesota researcher, says community support like that can serve as a protective barrier for children. "Kids are going to be alright if our community is able to be alright," Hodges says. "The most important thing that the grownup world can do to protect children's development in light of ICE surges is to prevent this from happening again." On the first day back at school from online learning, Ms.

### Areas for Consideration
N/A

### Implications
- NPR is only using first names or initials for people at this school and are not naming the school because the staff fears the federal government could target them.
- One classroom is still being used as a grocery delivery operation, overflowing with cereal, beans, masa, cleaning supplies, diapers and backpacks packed with books and stuffies. "The pantry will continue to go for as long as we can fund it," says Katherine, a parent volunteer. "It's the right thing to do.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers school, npr, tim topics. Notable strengths include discussion of school. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 1348.