With the largest immigrant population of any state in the nation and the largest share of immigrant-origin children (Mejia & Johnson, 2026), California has long been at the forefront of developing policies, curricula, and pedagogical practices designed to promote the school success, English language acquisition, college and career readiness, and overall wellbeing of students of immigrant backgrounds. Yet, the unprecedented attacks on immigrants happening now and the ongoing threat of immigration enforcement, including near or on school grounds, is reshaping students’ and educators’ daily realities. District and school leaders, politicians, and policymakers are facing new challenges and must assume new responsibilities in order to ensure access to rigorous, comprehensive educational opportunities for all students in California, particularly those of immigrant backgrounds. This report focuses exclusively on the public preK-12 sector; however, institutions of higher education face both unique and overlapping challenges that warrant careful attention as well (Brumer, 2025).
Currently, there are 10.9 million immigrants living in the state of California. This figure represents roughly 28 percent of the state’s total population and 22 percent of all foreign-born people in the United States (Mejia & Johnson, 2026). While only five percent of all children in California were born outside of the United States (Urban Institute, 2026), around 45 percent of children in California under 18 have at least one immigrant parent (Mejia & Johnson, 2026), the largest share of whom come from Mexico (46%). This is followed by East Asia or the Pacific Islands (15%), the Middle East or South Asia (11%), Central American or the Spanish Caribbean (10%), and Southeast Asia (5%) (Urban Institute, 2026). In addition, of the nearly three million undocumented immigrants estimated to be living in California at this time (Migration Policy Institute, n.d.), around 130,000 of them are school-aged children. Moreover, one in five children in California lives in a mixed status family in which at least one parent is undocumented (State of California, n.d.)
Immigrant and immigrant-origin students enrolled in California’s public schools are highly diverse in terms of language, racial/ethnic, religious, geographic, and socio-economic backgrounds. They are also widely distributed across the grade span. The largest proportion of immigrant-origin students in California public schools (32 percent) are in grades one through five, followed by 25 percent in grades nine through twelve, and twenty percent in the middle grades (six to eight). Over six percent of immigrant-origin students also attend kindergarten, and seven percent are in public pre-school. Another seven percent of children aged three to five are not enrolled in school (CA Department of Education, 2026a). This distribution requires schools at all levels to have adequate resources and expertise to meet immigrant-origin students’ heterogenous learning and developmental needs.
The population, on average, of children of immigrants in California’s public schools differs from their non-immigrant-origin peers in meaningful ways. Whereas in 2023, a full 14 percent of California’s public-school students who have at least one immigrant parent were classified as “English Learners” (ELs) (also referred to as Emergent Multilingual Learners “EML” in California), only two percent of students with no foreign-born parents were classified as EL. Additionally, over 40 percent of immigrant-origin students were categorized as low-income with 16 percent having a family income below the poverty line; conversely, 28 percent of children of U.S.-born parents in California in 2023 were low-income and less than 12 percent had a family income below the poverty line (Urban Institute, 2026).
Taken together, these data provide some initial foundation for understanding the characteristics of California’s students most likely to be directly affected by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents’ continuing campaign against immigrants—a campaign being waged in homes, schools, courthouses, places of worship, and other community spaces across the state and nationwide. While the assets, challenges, and educational trajectories of first- and second-generation immigrant children can vary in important ways, including as a result of their own citizenship status (Figlio & Özek, 2020; Hao & Woo, 2012; Portes & Rumbaut, 2024), these students share a common experience of growing up in immigrant-led households, which, in turn, can influence their school access, engagement, and outcomes (Sattin-Bajaj, et al., 2023).
Today, immigrant communities are feeling more vulnerable than ever; it is therefore necessary to consider the implications of ICE’s ramped up incursions for the broadest group of young people—that is, all immigrant-origin students. Using a wider lens facilitates a more comprehensive estimation of the effects of the current conditions and clearer identification of those education and other policies that are functioning well to protect and support immigrant-origin students, those that may be obstructing their progress, and where there are gaps. As such, this report focuses on the profiles, educational trends, and policies associated with the student subgroups that are most likely to be immigrant-origin and therefore most likely to be directly impacted by immigration enforcement.
