Educators in school districts across the country are touting virtual schools in the wake of increasing ICE presence around schools. Industry website K-12 Dive says educators in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York have all floated the idea, noting that more than 600,000 K-12 students were in the United States in 2021 without legal permission. A recent report from Psychiatry Online found that children are struggling with “chronic fear, instability and trauma” because of police raids in what were previously considered safe spaces: “Forced family separations, particularly those resulting from immigration enforcement (e.g., detention, deportation), introduce acute psychological risks.”

