Supporting Undocumented and Newcomer Students: School Staff Perceptions and Practices from the Chicago Metro Region

The Chicago Metropolitan Area is home to one of the largest immigrant populations in the country. Over the last four years, the region has experienced an influx of foreign-born migrants, leading to thousands of new students enrolling in its public schools. Schools reported several difficulties in supporting newcomer students to adjust alongside a classroom of diverse student needs. Moreover, supporting immigrant-origin youth, specifically undocumented and newcomer students, has become increasingly difficult under the second Trump administration. Heightened immigration enforcement and mass deportations have left a devastating impact on immigrant communities in the Chicagoland region. Nonetheless, school staff have remained resilient amid challenges. This thesis draws on interviews with administrators, teachers, and social workers to examine how staff make sense of undocumented and newcomer statuses, and the effect the political environment has had on their school-wide and individual practices. Based on these interviews, staff members make an effort to reduce barriers for their students, but are heavily constrained by institutional inadequacies exacerbated by the federal administration's stance against immigrant communities. This paper positions school staff as frontline actors who strategically employ several strategies to support their students, guided by their perceived responsibilities and personal experiences. Ultimately, school staff are well-positioned to mitigate barriers to education among their undocumented and newcomer students, but this requires institutions to provide the structural support and resources that sustain their efforts in the longterm.