This week San Francisco students are cherishing their last moments of summer break before returning to the classroom on Monday.
But immigrant students and families are preoccupied with more than making new friends and meeting new teachers: They are worried about how to secure an attorney for their immigration case, or how to find a secure place to live and food to make for dinner or breakfast.
Enter an ecosystem of nonprofits, and volunteer groups that see the need and are doing what they can to meet it. San Francisco’s school district, unlike many, also acts as a conduit for immigrant families to access all kinds of resources, legal services, housing, free food, school supplies, and more.
“The school district is a touch point for immigrant families that has a history of developing trust that other city departments and even nonprofit organizations do not have,” said Milli Atkinson, director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Program at the San Francisco Bar Association.
The district has two full-time staff members dedicated to supporting migrant students in an office dubbed RISE SF, which is short for Refugee and Immigrant Solidarity in Education.
The pair help families enroll in school or apply for free lunch, for example, and can also connect parents with local health clinics or help them apply for a San Francisco ID card.
It is unclear exactly how many immigrant students are among San Francisco’s 56,149 students — the school district is not allowed to ask about a students’ immigration status.
But what is known is that, during the last school year, 2,862 immigrant students in the San Francisco School District were considered “newcomers,” which means they arrived in the United States within the last three school years, according to the teachers union.
Mission Local did not receive a response from the district as to how many “newcomer” students are enrolled to attend school this coming year. But Atkinson said the number has been increasing as immigrant families flee states with more restrictive immigration policies.
According to the state education department, last school year, 13,179 students were identified as “English learners,” although not all of these students are immigrants.
One of those policies is the arrests at court and immigration appointments. Between now and November, between seven and 15 immigrant families are scheduled to attend immigration court or an immigration appointment every month, according to data shared with Mission Local from Matt Alexander, school board member.
To aid this and other needs of immigrant families, the San Francisco Unified School District has partnered with the Justice and Diversity Center, a nonprofit legal service provider which is a part of the San Francisco Bar Association, to provide an attorney who can help families navigate the process.
Immigrant families can be referred to an attorney through the RISE SF office. The nonprofit has two full-time attorneys who, though they do not act as an official attorney on immigration cases, can offer free legal consultations for families and help them find a lawyer. The program is privately funded.
Over the summer, one of those attorneys helped a mother from El Salvador who had a 5-year-old enrolled in San Francisco school to avoid deportation. The mother said she was a victim of trafficking.
“We don’t want the children to be placed in harm because their parents don’t have access to legal services,” said Atkinson.
The nonprofit Faith in Action also helps immigrant families. Among other things, it has helped organize a legal fund where families can apply to get financial support to hire an attorney. So far, around $185,000 has been raised.
The group also has a team of volunteers that can accompany students and families to immigration court, or to routine appointments with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that are a required part of many applications for legal status.
Teachers, too, have volunteered to attend immigration court or immigration appointments alongside their students. Since President Trump took office, there has been an increase in arrests at these kinds of appointments.
There are also trainings and know-your-rights seminars hosted by organizations such as Legal Services for Children.
Policies around immigration enforcement
The school district has had a sanctuary city policy for decades that among other things prohibits immigration officials from entering school grounds without a judicial warrant signed by a judge.
Matt Alexander, a San Francisco school board member and organizer with Faith in Action, said that families in San Francisco he speaks to view the schools as “a source of hope in face of fear and trauma.”
There is also a Safe Schools Committee that gathers volunteers to walk the neighborhood around the school checking for ICE activity. The group was formed in response to fears immigrant families felt in walking to school. Some were afraid of being picked up by immigration agents in transit.
Earlier this year, the district proposed budget cuts to its newcomer programs — services for recently arrived immigrant students — before partially reversing course after pushback. The superintendent has since committed to forming a working group with families and educators, though details are still being worked out.
Alexander said helping families find stable housing remains the elephant in the room. Hundreds of families, he said, are homeless, and thousands more are living in unstable housing, under the constant fear of eviction. “If we are going to be a sanctuary city we have to do better.”
Resources for immigrant families
Here are some links to available resources.
On the school district website, you can find the RISE SF homepage which provides lists of community resources as well as a contact email for the office. The staff members speak Spanish.
Families who want to apply for free lunch, can do so here.
In case of a potential immigration arrest or immigration emergency, immigrants are encouraged to contact the San Francisco Rapid Response Network. The phone number is 415-200-1548.
In case of a parent or caregiver being arrested, families are encouraged to fill out a “Caregiver Authorization Affidavit” on behalf of the student so that a caregiver can pick up a student. If no one is able to pick up the child, Child Protective Services will be contacted.
The San Francisco Immigration Legal Education Network has created templates for family plans.
For those looking for an immigration attorney, you can use the San Francisco legal help tool.
For those seeking healthcare, they can access services through the Newcomers Health Program.
