Kristi Noem – �鶹��Ʒ

Lawmakers Demand Info on Students Detained by ICE, Including on Their Schooling

Jo Napolitano — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 16:30:00 +0000

New York Congressional Democrats have demanded that the departments of Education and Homeland Security provide information on the welfare of recently detained students — including whether they are receiving educational services.

Led by U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, they expressed “profound concern” to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Education Secretary Linda McMahon “about the pattern of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targeting K-12 public school students throughout the country.”

They cited the cases of five young New Yorkers — including a 6-year-old Ecuadorian girl who was in August while her brother, , remained in adult Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. Two other siblings, one a K-12 student, were left in New York without their mother.

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“ICE’s targeting of not only adults without criminal convictions, but also children and families, negates the administration’s stated policy of going after the ‘worst of the worst’ for deportation proceedings,” they note in signed by eight other New York Democratic U.S. representatives, including Ritchie Torres and Jerrold Nadler.

They demanded to know the total number of students — from kindergarten to college-age — arrested by the Department of Homeland Security since President Donald Trump took office in January. They want to learn how many remain in ICE custody, their average length of stay and what percentage were or are being held alongside their families.

They further asked how the U.S. government is meeting its legal obligation to educate these children and, more specifically, about the quality and language proficiency of the teaching staff.

“The Department of Education has the responsibility under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution to ensure that all students have equal access to education,” they wrote. “Please provide copies of curricula, sample lesson plans, and rubrics currently in use at ICE detention facilities, processing sites, and Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters.”

An Education Department spokeswoman said Monday that it will respond to the letter when the government reopens. In a statement to �鶹��Ʒ, DHS did not answer any questions about the school-age children detained by its agents, but blamed the media for “attempting to create a climate of fear and smear law enforcement.”

U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman speaks with federal agents after observing a June 18 immigration court hearing at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Ocasio-Cortez and Espaillat did not respond to �鶹��Ʒ’s requests for comment. A spokesperson for Goldman, whose district encompasses Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, said he “remains extremely committed to holding ICE accountable for terrorizing our schools and communities.”

The U.S. representatives’ worry about the fate of immigrant children echoes concerns being voiced nationally. Advocates say their communities are living in are targeted near school grounds, particularly in and where ICE tactics have been aggressive.

Alarm over agents’ actions and their apparent lack of accountability was a central theme of the more than 2,700 attended by millions across the country this past weekend.

Ranking Democratic members of two congressional subcommittees said Monday against ICE agents, citing that more than 170 U.S. citizens have been held — including nearly 20 children.

Rebecca Brown, supervising attorney with Public Counsel’s Immigrants’ Rights Project (Rebecca Brown)

“There’s no boundaries in this dragnet,” Rebecca Brown, a supervising attorney with Public Counsel’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, told �鶹��Ʒ . “Now there’s no ‘off limits.’ Everything is fair game.”

Not only are children and their parents being swept up near school grounds, Brown said the current federal government shutdown is making it increasingly difficult for families — and attorneys — to locate anyone who’s been detained.

“With this administration and with this budget shutdown, it is really hard to get folks on the phone,” she said.

Immigrant advocacy organizations are urging parents to make guardianship plans, including those specific to their child’s schooling. One such group, in response to the massive uptick in enforcement efforts, said for the first time it’s helped some 100 families this year make binding educational plans for their kids in case their parents or guardians are arrested or deported.

“We have not used this in prior years,” said Julie Babayeva, supervising attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group’s LegalHealth Unit. “We are doing this much more now. This is becoming super urgent.”

More than were in government detention in late September, according to a clearinghouse that tracks federal data. More than 71% had no criminal convictions. More than unaccompanied minors were in government custody as of Oct. 20, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is under HHS, oversees their care at some and programs in 24 states and is charged with detainees’ schooling. ORR did not respond to requests for comment.

Undocumented immigrants over 18 are sent to adult holding sites. Dylan Lopez Contreras, 20 and a student at a New York City high school dedicated to older newcomers, is among them. The Bronx resident was arrested in May in a high-profile case and remains in detention as his lawyers denying him asylum and deporting him back to Venezuela.

Contreras’s case was also cited in the letter to Noem and McMahon, with the representatives noting he is being held hundreds of miles away from his family in Pennsylvania at the “Moshannon Valley Processing Center, from which there have been reports of insufficient medical care and use of solitary confinement.”

Conditions at both and have been widely criticized. In addition to concerns about young people’s overall health and safety, at these sites: substandard curriculum and untrained or underqualified staff are among many complaints.

Just last week, immigrant from Everett, Massachusetts, was arrested after authorities fielded a “credible tip” in which the student was said to have made “a violent threat against another boy within our public school.”

Erika Richmond-Walton, litigation fellow at Lawyers for Civil Rights. (Erika Richmond-Walton)

His mother, who arrived at the local police station to pick him up, was instead told ICE had already taken him away. The family, from Brazil, has a pending asylum claim. The mother from two different immigration facilities, one in Massachusetts and the other in Virginia.

“He cried a lot because he had never been away from home or his family,” she said. “He was desperate, saying ICE had taken him.”

Erika Richmond-Walton, a litigation fellow at Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights, said the detention and deportation of young kids “is definitely not protecting or advancing their educational rights. Deporting children contradicts decades of settled law.”

And even if the children themselves are not targeted, the removal of their parents is devastating. One California mother is bereft after her husband was detained in late September after dropping off their 8-year-old daughter at school.

The woman, who asked not to be identified for fear of immigration enforcement, told �鶹��Ʒ she talks with her husband every day through video chat and that she expects him to be deported to their country of origin. She said government officials told her husband they are “waiting for the plane to fill up so they can send it to Colombia.”

Protestors march with signs and flags in a late afternoon No Kings protest against the Trump Administration in Detroit, Michigan, USA, on Oct. 18. (Getty Images)

, said the well-documented damage to school-age children of aggressive deportation extends far beyond increased absenteeism, anxiety and plummeting grades. In a just society, he said, young people learn political norms through what they see.

“When a child watches a federal agent drag a parent from a car line or hauls someone off in front of classmates, they absorb a lived lesson: Power may be exercised arbitrarily, and some lives can be violated in public without accountability,” he said.

Adaku Onyeka-Crawford, director of the Opportunity To Learn Program and a senior attorney at The Advancement Project, located in Washington, D.C., said immigrants at schools is dubious.

“I think this administration is tricky when it’s saying we are not sending ICE to schools but are sending ICE after students who are on their way to school — and targeting communities and children no matter where they are or what their age.”

Prior administrations took such circumstances into account, at least to an extent, said Brown of the Public Counsel’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. But early on in his second term, Trump rescinded a longstanding restriction against immigration agents carrying out enforcement actions in so-called sensitive locations, including schools.

“There was some consideration for age and vulnerability,” she said. “We’ve seen an uptick in enforcement around schools. … This is by design: You punish the kids in order to get the parents to comply.”

As Noem’s School Choice Bill Divides Educators, Some Districts Cooperate with Homeschool Families

Makenzie Huber — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 17:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published in

Nearly 15% of school-age children in the Meade School District — 504 students — are enrolled in alternative instruction instead of attending a state-accredited private or public school.

Because state funding is partially based on enrollment, those children would bring roughly $3.5 million in funding to the district if they attended a public school.

That’s money that could cover staff salaries and resources, maintenance and repair of school buildings or extracurriculars, said Heath Larson, executive director of Associated School Boards of South Dakota.

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Rising Alternatives

This is the fifth story in a about the growth of alternative instruction in South Dakota.

Further stories examine the , concerns about , growing alternatives for , and the .

Larson and other public education advocates are concerned that as more families remove their kids from traditional schools to pursue alternative instruction, school districts will continue to lose funding.

“Our state must continue to adequately fund public education,” Larson said, “to ensure that our schools are able to meet the needs of all students and provide school districts the resources and support they need.”

Alternative instruction nearly tripled in South Dakota over the last decade from 3,933 students in 2014 to 11,489 — now making up about 7% of school-age children in the state. That includes online, hybrid and microschools that are unaccredited, or accredited by an entity other than the state.

The trend accelerated in 2021 when South Dakota lawmakers deregulated alternative instruction, making it easier for parents to remove their kids from public schools and harder for public school systems to monitor alternatively instructed students.

This winter, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem wants to create education savings accounts (ESAs). The $4 million program — part of a to make public funds available for private school and alternative instruction — would provide about in its first year to pay for a portion of private school tuition or curriculum for alternative instruction.

Ahead of the annual legislative session, which begins Tuesday, Noem’s ESA proposal is public school advocates against their counterparts from private education and alternative instruction.

“I will personally fight tooth and nail to make sure that public education stands forever, if I can have my way,” said Rob Monson, executive director of the School Administrators of South Dakota. “We’re going to see an attack this year, I believe, on the public school institution bigger than we’ve ever seen.”

Public school advocates worry the program will balloon and siphon money away from public schools, while primarily benefiting students who are already enrolled in private school or alternative instruction without state support.

Monson told South Dakota Searchlight that families should work with their local school boards to make the changes they hope to see.

Some school districts and alternative-instruction families have been doing that: experimenting with ways to cooperate. They’ve created hybrid arrangements that allow students to participate in both alternative and public education, while school districts retain some of the state funding they would lose if the students had no involvement with a public school.

Students shift between public & alternative school, study says

The conversation surrounding homeschooling growth at the state Legislature has largely been framed as an exodus from public school systems. But that isn’t entirely accurate from a national perspective, said Angela Watson, director of the Homeschool Research Lab at in Maryland.

The vast majority of nontraditional students nationwide are “switchers,” Watson said: children who shift between public school, alternative instruction and back again. Between 36% and 43% of students surveyed for a were homeschooled for only one to two years.

Rebecca Lundgren started a hybrid school in Dell Rapids this school year. Lundgren removed her three children from the public school system in 2019 but allowed them to choose where they go to school.

Josie, Rebecca’s 15-year-old youngest child, plans to continue alternative schooling through graduation but takes some classes at the hybrid and public school. While she likes the routine of public school and spending time with friends, homeschooling allows her to learn at her own pace. She is diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia and auditory processing disorder.

“I struggle a bit sometimes with my learning. I like learning in a classroom setting, but sometimes the noise and people become too much,” Josie said.

Rebecca added that it’s important to her that her family is active in Dell Rapids and supports all educational paths, not just investing in her own children’s education. That, she said, ensures the best education for everyone.

“I think homeschoolers need to support public school students and I think public school needs to support homeschool,” she said.

Lundgren’s oldest child graduated from homeschooling in 2022. Her middle child returned to public school full-time the same year.

That “switcher” perspective “completely changes the conversation,” Watson said. It’s an important distinction for lawmakers, homeschool advocates and school administrators to understand for funding and policy decisions, including virtual schooling or re-enrollment requirements: the students who leave might return.

“If we understand those kids are going to probably end up in public schools, I think including them as much as possible is probably a good move for all concerned,” Watson said.

Harrisburg finds success in nontraditional ‘personalized learning’

Alternative instruction advocates say their growth can spur public schools to respond with changes that improve public education. The Harrisburg School District’s “personalized learning” model is an example. The district adopted the approach from a charter school in Maine.

The district uses personalized learning for most elementary students. They learn math and reading — and some other subjects — at their own pace. Students complete activities, assignments and “mastery checks” individually before advancing. If they don’t master the unit, they keep working.

Teachers closely follow data from placement tests, mastery checks, assignments and activities to understand how to work best with each child, said Harrisburg Superintendent Tim Graf.

The switch benefits teachers as well, said McClain Botsford, a third grade teacher. Botsford taught in a traditional classroom in Nebraska before moving to the Harrisburg district three years ago. She said she’d “never go back,” because she feels less frustration and burnout working with students individually.

Teachers also become subject matter experts because they’ll teach one topic, like fractions, through second and fifth grades, rather than learning the entirety of math standards at one grade level. Students move between four second-through-fifth grade teachers in a “cohort” as they focus on mastering a subject.

The children work on assignments and watch videos on their tablets when they aren’t working with teachers in small groups. Because of that, there can be less behavior issues during math and reading since children are focused and challenged, Botsford said.

Because the district is the fastest growing in the state, it has the funds to invest in different educational techniques, Graf said. Not all school districts have that luxury.

Just over 300 students, or 4.64% of the school-aged population in the Harrisburg School District, are enrolled in alternative instruction this year.

‘Public education is meant to serve all children’

Sheridan Keller’s children are homeschooled, but her son is enrolled in a business class at Florence High School near their town of Wallace in eastern South Dakota. Both of her sons play sports and band, one daughter participates in middle school music classes, and her youngest daughter attended kindergarten once a week last school year.

Her children are involved in the school because her superintendent clearly communicates with her about her children’s needs, she said. Florence Superintendent Mitchell Reed expressed a similar sentiment.

“Public education is meant to serve all children in a district,” Reed said, “not just full-time students.”

School districts are required to allow alternative instruction students to participate in sports and extracurriculars, and to enroll in classes. Those reforms were included in an alternative instruction .

When an alternative student participates in a public school class or sport, the school district claims that student’s “credit hour” and receives state funding to support the child’s participation.

But the relationship between public schools and homeschool families can depend on the district, Keller said. Her daughter joined the Florence kindergarten class once per week to make friends. She attended field trips and class parties, as well as normal days in the classroom. She was also included in the kindergarten graduation program.

“Our school is very good to us,” Keller said. “It’s just things like that that really make a difference.”

Meade experiments with online learning

Online education is growing in the alternative instruction world, said Lisa Nehring, the owner and founder of True North Home School Academy. The online school teaches roughly 600 children grades second through 12th nationwide on subjects including math, literature, science, foreign language and soft skills, such as career exploration.

Students typically enroll in a few courses at a time, with three classes being the most popular “bundle,” said Nehring, who lives in Parker. Science, English and foreign language are the most popular courses because they’re harder to teach at home.

“And then they’ll do co-ops or dual enrollment or the parents will teach them themselves,” Nehring said.

Thousands of students across the state use virtual learning each year through the state’s , whether the classes replace an unfilled teaching position within a school district, are used for student credit recovery to graduate, or make courses available that are not offered at the local school district.

Alternative instruction students can take courses, as long as they register through their public school district. The student’s request for online access can be denied, depending on the school district’s policy.

Jen Beving, a homeschooling organizer and deputy state director for Americans for Prosperity-South Dakota, advocated for mandatory online education access for alternative instruction students at the state level two years ago. Virtual schools would bridge the gap between public and alternative instruction, allowing the public school to retain some oversight of the students, she said. For example, schools can monitor students’ laptops and engagement through the program.

The Meade School District is piloting a program similar to Beving’s idea this school year.

The school district launched its Meade County Homeschool Connections program, which allows alternative instruction families to enroll their children in kindergarten through eighth grade online classes on a part-time or full-time basis.

A facilitator coordinates the program to connect with families who partially enroll their children for in-person classes. The district purchased an online teaching program, Acellus, to teach the courses. It mixes self-paced videos and interactive components.

“If a kid is struggling with a component, the program will recognize that and backfill with additional support and content,” said Whitewood Elementary Principal Brit Porterfield, who’s closely involved with the Connections program. “It identifies skills they’re struggling with and provides more material and targeted lessons as a way to improve mastery. It caters itself to students’ needs.”

The program — including the facilitator and technology — costs about $106,000 a year, said Superintendent Wayne Wormstadt. It’s capped at the equivalent of 30 fully enrolled students, and will not accept children outside of the Meade School District. Increasing the school’s student enrollment by 30 allows for about $200,000 in state funding, Wormstadt said.

As of the beginning of the school year, 20 students were enrolled. Most students are enrolled in reading and math classes.

The pilot program will run for two years before being reviewed.

“Whether the student is in public all school years or homeschooling, these children are going to be the future leaders in our community,” Wormstadt said, “so I feel this pilot is an important part of what we should be doing not just inside our school building walls but inside the school district as a whole.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com.

South Dakota Gov’s $4M School Choice Plan Faces Backlash

Makenzie Huber — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 17:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published in

PIERRE — A $4 million proposal by South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem to help students enroll in private school and other forms of alternative instruction would undermine public education by diverting state money to unaccountable entities, opponents say.

Supporters of the plan say it would allow the state to start educational reform that’s gained momentum nationwide while lowering education costs, forcing public education to innovate and offering South Dakota students tailored education to best meet their learning needs.

Noem pitched the creation of education savings accounts, or ESAs, to lawmakers at her annual Tuesday in Pierre as a way to continue to “prioritize education” without cutting public education funds.

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“Good education starts in the home,” Noem said. “And parents should have the tools to choose what educational path is best for their kids.”

The program would cover about $3,000 per student annually to pay for a portion of private school tuition or curriculum for alternative education, Noem said. She hopes to expand the program eventually, but she might not be around to act on that plan. President-elect Donald Trump has as his nominee to lead the federal Department of Homeland Security, which means she could resign as governor as soon as late January, elevating Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden to serve the rest of her term.

The program would be for “families who meet eligibility requirements,” according to , and Noem’s spokesman said the requirements will include being low-income. Sixteen other states already allow families to use .

The proposal comes as South Dakota sees one of the highest rises in alternative instruction in the nation. Across the state, alternatively enrolled students account for about 6.5% of the school-age population, based on public, non-public and alternative enrollment data from the state Department of Education. Alternative instruction includes homeschooling and private schools that are unaccredited or accredited by an entity other than the state, such as online, hybrid and microschools.

Lawmakers and education lobbyists in Pierre are eager to learn the details about Noem’s proposed legislation – especially how the state will ensure oversight and accountability, how students are chosen for the program and how it’ll fit into the state’s ongoing expenses.

“We have homework to do,” said incoming Senate President Pro Tempore Chris Karr, R-Sioux Falls, a former member of the legislative budgeting committee who supports the school choice movement. “We have to go look at this and figure out how to implement this responsibly.”

Sandra Waltman, director of public affairs for the South Dakota Education Association, said any entity that accepts public funding should be held to the same standards as public education, such as testing requirements and anti-discrimination policies. Alternative instruction students are currently not required to take standardized tests or present a portfolio to demonstrate educational progress. Private schools aren’t obligated to serve all students, so they can deny admission and educational services, Waltman added.

“When you’re taking those precious funds and diverting them from public schools, you’re undermining what public schools can do for students,” Waltman said. “There’s no assurance the money they’re investing in education is actually making a difference.”

Noem didn’t propose cutting public education to fund the program, but proposed a state funding increase to public education of 1.25%. The inflation rate this year is 3.2%, according to the .

Lower-than-expected sales tax collections primarily drive the leaner $7.29 billion budget Noem , which also includes cuts to some state departments and programs.

That signals to Rob Monson, executive director of School Administrators of South Dakota, that lawmakers will challenge the feasibility of ESAs.

“Some legislators will look at public education serving over 80% of students in the state and think, ‘If we have extra money, maybe we should obligate that to a program we’re already obligated to fund instead of funding a new program with ongoing dollars,’” Monson said.

Efforts to failed twice in the Legislature in recent years, largely due to questions about financial feasibility, said Brookings Republican Rep. Mellissa Heermann, a member of the House Education Committee.

South Dakota must be intentional with the “small pot” of tax revenue it has to work with, Heermann said. She added that there are already school programs in place to help address students’ mental health, behavioral and learning needs.

“I don’t know that vouchers would be as impactful as other programs,” Heermann said. “The timing doesn’t feel right to me to embark on something like this when we’re already trying to reduce costs as much as possible.”

Incoming House Majority Leader Scott Odenbach, R-Spearfish, said the proposal focuses on educating students, rather than supporting a public education system that’s weighed down by overhead costs and top-heavy administrative costs. An ESA program could force local districts to decentralize, adapt and focus more on students’ education, he said.

“No entity evolves until it’s forced,” Odenbach said.