U.S. Policy Updates: What English Language Educators Need to Know

2025 began with a dramatic shift in U.S. political priorities. Administrative and legislative actions at the federal and state levels have generated concern and challenges across the educational landscape, especially for English language teachers serving communities that include undocumented learners. Educators and schools are quickly responding to these actions, seeking answers and legal guidance while continuing to serve the learners and families within their communities.

Here are three key policies that impact multilingual families in the United States, with guidance and resources for educators at varying levels—district administrators, campus administrators, and classroom teachers.

Key Policy 1: The Protected Areas Policy

The protected area policy¹, which exempts schools, hospitals, and places of worship from nonexigent circumstances (U.S. Const. amend. IV, § 6.3) on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), goes back at least to 1993 (Puleo). The policy, though, has never been made into law and, as a result, is contingent upon agency and executive leadership for adherence.

On Monday, 20 January, Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued a directive (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2025) that ICE agents would not have to abide by the sensitive or protected areas policy. With this move, ICE agents may now apprehend and arrest “criminal aliens . . . who have illegally come into [the] country” directly on school campuses, from elementary and secondary education institutions to adult and higher education institutions, including vocational schools.

What Educators Can Do

Schools should have protocols in place that both inform students and families and guide administrators, instructors, and school personnel on what to do when or if ICE visits. What these protocols look like will vary by state.

Revisit Your District Policies: Take a close look at your district policies around undocumented students and families and consider whether they need updating. Practical examples of district policies abound; Wayne County Michigan Schools offers an excellent example of a thorough district policy to safeguard the rights and privacies of all students.

Know the Law: One key piece of information is that ICE must have a judicial warrant, absent nonexigent circumstances, for interrogating or removing a student from the school if parental consent is not provided (National Immigration Law Center, 2025). (“Exigent circumstances” would include life-threatening situations, such as natural disasters, pursuing fleeing suspects, and imminent destruction of evidence.) According to the National Immigration Law Center, “immigration warrants and immigration subpoenas, on their own, are not enforceable.” Some states, like Florida and Alabama, have communicated that they’d like schools to offer a more “welcoming” environment for ICE activities, while other states, such as California and New York, have taken a stricter line on compliance (Chatlani, 2025). Educators should check with their local and/or state educational agencies for guidance specific to their location.

• • • ➣ The downloadable PDF, “Warrants and Subpoenas: What to Look Out for and How to Respond,” from the National Immigration Law Center (2025) is useful for schools and families and covers topics like the different types of documents authorities might bring to your school (or home), whether you must comply, and how to respond.

Keep Staff Informed: Instructors need to know your district’s protocols. If you are an administrator, hold a staff meeting to run through various scenarios:

• • • • What happens if ICE comes to campus?
        
        
      • What if there are arrests of students or employees?
        
        
      • What if, due to apprehensions or detainments off-campus of family members, a learner has no one to pick them up or no one to greet them when they get home?
        
        
      • If you are a staff member, talk with your administrator to find out the answers to questions like these—how will your school handle it?

Keep Families Informed: Foremost for educators serving multilingual learners of English (MLEs) and their families is ensuring compliance with the law and that students and their families have accurate information. Families need to be informed of their and their children’s educational, civil, and legal rights, and they need to know what your school will do in various situations. Keep the lines of communication open, and provide information often, even when it seems no one is asking; families with precarious citizenship status will likely be disinclined to come forward and ask the questions they need answers to. Schools, when communicating with families, must provide translation into the home or preferred language of the family.

Key Policy 2: Federal Funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Education

New executive orders label DEI initiatives as discriminatory (The White House, 2025a) and call for the revaluation of federal spending (The White House, 2025b), specifically around DEI (The White House, 2025c). These orders both call into question federal funding supporting pathways for MLEs into education and the workforce and future federal funding supporting local and state educational agencies in supplementing activities and programs for MLEs and the protection of educational and family rights of these learners.

What Educators Can Do

Currently, the federal government is operating on a continuing resolution that keeps the government running through 15 March 2025, even though it did not pass the budget at the end of the fiscal year. The good news is that Title III funds are already obligated to states through the current fiscal year (through September 2025), but fiscal year 2026 discussions, which begin this spring, could have a very real impact.

Review Your Programs: If you have any programs or departments at the state and local level that are federally funded and that have DEI components, make sure that you are in communication with the program or department head to discuss possible impacts and if any changes are needed (or are even possible) to protect against funding freezes or discontinuation. Here are some questions to ask during a review:

• • • • • What language is used, if any, that may be targeted by future policies that restrict funding for DEI?
          
          
        • If that language can be changed, should it be changed? Will changing the language to safeguard our funding diminish our DEI work?
          
          
        • If we do not change language that may be targeted by future policies, what other nonfederal funding is available, and how can we pursue it?
          
          
        • A review of all language may be in order if other, nonfederal funding sources are not available.

Contact Local Education Agencies: Your state Title III office is responsible for ensuring that funding from Title III is distributed to and used properly at the local district levels. Make sure that plans are in place for these supplemental funds to be used. The worst case would be for money to go unused. When making appropriation decisions, Congress will look at past funds used, and unused funds will tip the balance against increases and may lead to cuts.

Take Action Through Advocacy: Efforts to counter these movements rely greatly upon the exercise of first amendment rights to petition the government and on urging elected officials to support education and value the diversity of all, especially MLEs. Here are some ways you can use your voice:

TESOL Advocacy Action Center: TESOL International Association provides an easy template for sending messages to U.S. senators and representatives. TESOL also hosts annual Advocacy Action Days, both virtual and in-person, which provide a way to learn more about policies and build relationships with your representatives. 

Share Your Impact Locally: You make a difference in your community. Share your impact with parent organizations, with local press and social media, and with your local and state officials. In the appropriations process, you are not “just asking for money,” you are enriching your community—the society and workforce—through the programming and support made possible by these funds. How many others know about that difference? The success of your students? The learners you serve? The families with which you engage? Your work matters, and people need to know. The world needs to know.

Key Policy 3: Every Student Has the Right to Access Public Education

Several Acts and Supreme Court decisions have made legal access to education for all without discrimination on language background or immigration status. The most prominent of these decisions regarding legal status is the 1982 decision Plyler v Doe (United States Courts, 2025), which removed any requirement or barrier to enrollment based on a child’s legal status, such that access to education became the rule of law.

Throughout the national elections and into the new administration and Congress, the issue of immigration has permeated all aspects of local and national discussions. Unfortunately for some states, the issue of immigration is being used as a vehicle to begin introducing status as a barrier to education.

Oklahoma’s Department of Education approved a policy that would require parents to prove citizenship when enrolling their children (Levenson, 2025), and that policy will now go before the state legislature. Indiana has introduced legislation which would deny enrollment to undocumented students (Potter, 2025) and Texas has reintroduced legislation which would require the federal government to pay for the education of undocumented children (Hovland, 2024).

All of these bills, if they pass the legislature, will be challenged in court as direct violations of civil rights, seeking to undermine Plyler v Doe. While they may appear only problematic at the state level, they will have nationwide implications, either affirming or dismantling the long-standing rule of law for educational access.

What Educators Can Do

Over the past few years, many school districts have witnessed an influx of newcomers, with many of those students being MLEs. As a result, some communities have struggled to secure resources to meet student and family needs, and, unfortunately, have become part of the public narrative around immigration. At all levels—local, state, and federal—some have pointed to the influx as evidence that noneducation issues, such as border security and the undocumented, hurt education. If you see this in your district or at your state level, don’t feel as if you are helpless.

Find Community and Connect: When you are part of a community, you can more easily organize efforts to effect change or even provide support and information for others. You may also find the solidarity needed to come forward when those challenges pose a potential but illegal threat to your job if there is fear of retaliation. If you are not part of such a community yet, there are many ways to find one that is already well into their advocacy efforts to defend “the right to public education for every child, no matter who they are or where they were born” (National Immigration law Center, n.d.).

For educators looking for a professional community to share resources, ask questions, and engage with others dedicated to serving all learners, TESOL International Association offers several member communities centered around interest areas, including one on serving newcomers. Locally, educators can also turn to their state or regional English language teaching association.

Elevate Shared Values and Advocate: In your communities and in your advocacy efforts, your messaging is vital. Helping others connect through the shared values of family, hard work, and protecting children will serve as a salve in the public narrative. You can shape that discussion, allowing others to identify and relate rather than separate and accuse. Here are some suggestions on how you can incorporate these shared values in supporting your advocacy at the community, states, and federal level:

• • • • • Emphasize the importance of education in all our lives, evoking memories of how school prepares children to become engaged members of society.
          
          
        • Acknowledge the challenges, especially on resources for underfunded schools, but underscore that we can work toward solutions aligned with our shared values.
          
          
        • Highlight the contributions to family and community of undocumented children and their families: their talents, skills, expertise, training, generosity, and so on.
          
          
        • Share the vision to preserve education for all, in which the whole community is enriched and thriving.

Within your communities, serve as the voice that humanizes undocumented children and families, with stories of their contributions and service to the community, while engaging in open discussion to protect educational access in the face of scarce resources.

Additional Resources

Fortunately, associations and organizations, along with district and state legal officials, have risen to provide and disseminate information on best practices for schools as well as legal rights for the undocumented. TESOL International Association has supplied quick links to several of these resources, including those from the National Newcomer Network and the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, along with educational resources to support learners in time of uncertainty and trauma:

➣ Supporting the ELT Profession and Multilingual Learners of English Under the Current U.S. Administration

This page also has valuable links to resources, such as the Creating a Family Immigration Raid Emergency Plan from the American Federation of Teachers.

In Closing

Sometimes it seems that we face a challenge that is too big, and we may even want to give up and walk away. I hope that if you are feeling overwhelmed you can find community with your friends, colleagues, and social networks—a network of people who can come alongside you for support and advocacy.

¹The protected area policy, as entitled by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is also referred to as the sensitive area or location policy.  

References

Chatlani, S. (2025, February 3).State, local officials plan for potential immigration enforcement at schools.Stateline. https://stateline.org/2025/02/03/state-local-officials-plan-for-potential-immigration-enforcement-at-schools/

Education for All Campaign. (n.d.). Education for all: Defending the right of all kids to learn. https://education4all.us/ 

Hovland, A. (2024, November 18). Proposal would require federal government to pay Texas for educating illegal aliens. Texas Scorecard. https://texasscorecard.com/state/proposal-would-require-federal-government-to-pay-texas-for-educating-illegal-aliens/ 

Levenson, E. (2025, January 28). Oklahoma board of education votes to approve proposal requiring parents to prove citizenship when enrolling students. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/28/us/oklahoma-school-students-immigration-proof

National Immigration Law Center. (2025, January). Warrants and subpoenas: What to look out for and how to respond. https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2025-Subpoenas-Warrants_.pdf 

Potter, M. (2025, January 15). Undocumented children could be barred from school under new Indiana bill. WTHR. https://www.wthr.com/article/news/education/bill-would-let-indiana-schools-bar-undocumented-children-enrollment-jim-lucas-illegal-immigrant-immigration-supreme-court-house-republican/531-129fc97b-7e9d-4adb-b517-80e4e44ce5cb 

Puleo, J. A. (1993). Memorandum: Enforcement actions at or focused on sensitive locations. United States Immigration and Naturalization Service. National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project Web Library. https://niwaplibrary.wcl.american.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/IMM-Memo-SensLocationsEnforce.pdf 

The White House. (2025a, January 21). Ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/ 

The White House. (2025b, January 20). Reevaluating and realigning United States foreign aid. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reevaluating-and-realigning-united-states-foreign-aid/ 

The White House. (2025c, January 20). Ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/ 

U.S. Const. amend. IV, § 6.3.

United States Courts. (n.d.). Access to education - rule of law. https://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-activities/access-education-rule-law 

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2025, January 21). Statement from a DHS spokesperson on directives expanding law enforcement and ending the abuse of humanitarian parole [Press release]. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/01/21/statement-dhs-spokesperson-directives-expanding-law-enforcement-and-ending-abuse