June 3, 2025

Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

Response to Executive Order Regarding Sanctuary Jurisdictions

On April 28, the Trump administration issued an executive order directing the federal Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to investigate state and local officials who “use their authority to violate, obstruct, and defy the enforcement of federal immigration laws.” The full executive order can be found here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/protecting-american-communities-from-criminal-aliens/.

All children in the United States, regardless of immigration or citizenship status, have a right to a free public education (Plyler v. Doe, 457U.S.202 [1982]). To this end, we at the California Department of Education (CDE) previously sent a letter to all local educational agencies regarding our continued obligation to protect access to educational services for students from immigrant families: https://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/yr25cdoletter0121.asp.

In California, local school districts have established policies designed to protect students’ continuous access to educational services by preventing immigration enforcement activities on school campuses without a judicial warrant. These policies include requiring federal agents to produce a judicial warrant before being allowed access to school campuses or student records. Additionally, many local school districts provide information to students and families about their constitutional rights and connect students and families to legal and family support resources available in the community.

Such policies adopted by local school districts are consistent with the United States Constitution and are required by California law, including the California Values Act of 2017 (Senate Bill 54) and the Safe Schools for Immigrant Students Act of 2017 (Assembly Bill 699), which require local school districts to establish policies protecting immigrant students from discrimination and limiting access by immigration authorities to campuses and student information.

The California Attorney General provided updated guidance to school districts on January 6, 2025, to assist districts in complying with California law limiting state and local participation in immigration enforcement activities (https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/bcj/school-guidance-model-k12.pdf).

The need for local school districts to establish policies protecting immigrant students became clear last month when federal agents attempted to access two school campuses in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The agents targeted students for questioning under the false pretense of parental consent. Thankfully, these federal agents were denied access to the campuses and the young students they were targeting due to LAUSD’s successful implementation of its board-adopted policies. See the CDE April 10 news release at https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr25/yr25rel21.asp.

The first Trump administration was blocked by federal courts from withholding federal funds from what it deemed “sanctuary jurisdictions” in a series of rulings in 2017 (County of Santa Clara v. Trump, 250 F.Supp.3d 497 [N.D. Cal 2017]; affirmed, 897 F.3d 1225 [9th Cir. 2018]). Recently, U.S. District Judge William Orrick issued an order barring the Trump administration from withholding federal funds from so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions” in a case brought by 16 cities and counties nationally (City and County of San Francisco v. Trump, 2025 WL 1186310 [N.D. Cal. April 24, 2025]).

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond stands with local school districts throughout California that are courageously protecting the rights of all students, regardless of immigration status, to a safe and welcoming school environment. That is why he is sponsoring SB 48, authored by Senator Lena Gonzalez, to prevent warrantless immigration enforcement actions on all school campuses across California.

For more information on how to protect the rights of immigrant students in California, please see the Safe Havens: Including Immigrant Families web page on the CDE website at https://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/safehavens.asp.

The California Department of Education will continue to keep the field apprised of important information in response to federal actions related to public education. For a consolidated list of our responses to 2025 federal actions, please see the 2025 Responses to Federal Actions web page on the CDE website at https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/fa/.

For additional information or assistance on the subject of immigration enforcement actions on school campuses, please reach out to Senior Policy Advisor Richard Barrera at rbarrera@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,

David Schapira
Chief Deputy Superintendent
Chief of Staff
California Department of Education