Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

Updated Guidance Regarding Required Local Policies on Immigration Enforcement at Schoolsites

Assembly Bill (AB) 49, signed by the Governor earlier this year, states that schools may not allow an officer or employee of an agency conducting immigration enforcement to enter a nonpublic area of a schoolsite for any purpose without being presented with a valid judicial warrant, judicial subpoena, or a court order. I co-sponsored AB 49 in response to strong concern about what I have heard from the field about the impacts of immigration enforcement on our students, families, and school communities.

In accordance with AB 49, the California Attorney General has updated and released model policies “limiting assistance with immigration enforcement at public schools, to the fullest extent possible consistent with federal and state law, and ensuring that public schools remain safe and accessible to all California residents, regardless of immigration status.” AB 49 requires all local educational agencies (LEAs) to adopt the model policies or equivalent policies by March 1, 2026. The model policies and related guidance are available at https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/school-guidance-model-k12.pdf.

The California Department of Education (CDE) has created a portal for LEAs to submit copies of updated, board-approved policies implementing AB 49 at https://www3.cde.ca.gov/ImmigrationEnforcementPolicy/iepolicy.aspx?r=lea. All LEAs are requested to submit their AB 49-compliant policies to the CDE portal on or before March 1, 2026.

For further information on resources to include immigrant families and their students in California schools, please visit the CDE Including Immigrant Families web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/pf/if/.

Sincerely,

Tony Thurmond
State Superintendent of Public Instruction