Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

New Legislation and Guidance: Immigration Enforcement Rapid Response Toolkit

The California Department of Education (CDE) has posted a new toolkit of resources in response to increased activity of immigration enforcement on and around schoolsites and in alignment with the requirements of recently enacted legislation, Assembly Bill 49 (Muratsuchi) and Senate Bill 98 (Perez), on the CDE Resources for Immigrant Families web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/immigration-toolkit.

I co-sponsored AB 49 and SB 98 in response to strong concerns I have heard from the field about the impacts of immigration enforcement on our students, families, and school communities.

As a result of this new legislation, California law now specifically prohibits school officials and employees of a local educational agency (LEA) from providing an officer or employee of an agency conducting immigration enforcement with access to a nonpublic area of a schoolsite for any purpose without being presented with a valid judicial warrant, judicial subpoena, or a court order or unless required by state or federal law.

In this context, per AB 49, “schoolsite” means an individual school campus of a school district, County Office of Education, or charter school; an area where an LEA’s school-sponsored activity is currently being held; or a school bus or other form of transportation provided by a local educational agency.

SB 98 will require communication to pupils, families, faculty, staff, and other school community members if an immigration enforcement agent is present on a schoolsite.

All LEAs will now also be required to provide the CDE with copies of local policies that limit assistance with immigration enforcement and ensure that public schools remain safe and accessible to all California residents. The CDE has made a portal available for policy submission: https://www3.cde.ca.gov/IEPolicyPortal.

LEAs are required to submit copies of local policies via the portal linked above by March 1, 2026, which is the statutory deadline to update local policies in alignment with guidance from the Attorney General.

The toolkit released today, Our Schools: Resources for Including Immigrant Families, provides family-facing posters that communicate assurance of all schools’ obligation to provide every child with access to education and a safe learning environment, regardless of immigration status, as well as guidance for best practices if immigration agents are present on schoolsites. We encourage all California schools to make these resources visible and accessible to families.

The posters and counter cards in this toolkit include:

• Content regarding protection of students’ and families’ privacy,
• Guidance from the Attorney General about how to respond if immigration agents are present,
• Information about caregiver affidavits,
• Recommendations for updating school safety plans, and
• Additional valuable resources.

In recognition of the fact that many LEAs may wish to include local policies or resources in any family-facing materials, the CDE has provided customizable versions of each toolkit poster in addition to versions that can be used statewide.

The Our Schools toolkit is currently available in English and Spanish. Additional languages will be added over the coming weeks so that this vital information about support for students and families will be accessible to most California immigrant communities.

This toolkit reflects our enduring commitment to include all Californians in rigorous and safe learning environments, and it affirms that immigrant families are full, vital members of our school communities. The guidance included responds to the realities that one in two children in California have at least one parent who is an immigrant, one in five children in California have parents whose immigration statuses differ from each other, and 93 percent of the children in mixed-status families are U.S. citizens.

For further information about 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