Immigration raids add to absence crisis for U.S. schools: study

NEW YORK, June 16 (Xinhua) -- As U.S. President Donald Trump promised mass deportations, educators sounded alarms that the actions could scare families away from school, affecting both immigrant and nonimmigrant students, reported The New York Times on Monday.

"Now, new research provides evidence that immigration raids did appear to lower school attendance. A Stanford University study found that parents kept their children out of school more often after raids swept California's Central Valley this winter," noted the report.

The findings suggest raids can harm student achievement and disrupt how schools function, even when they do not occur on or near school grounds. The study, by Thomas S. Dee, a professor of education at Stanford University, found that daily absences jumped 22 percent around the time raids occurred.

This week, the administration deployed troops to Los Angeles in response to protests against deportations. Absences went up, even though the district tried to reassure families that schools were safe, said the report.

The spike in absences is equivalent to the average student missing about 15 days of school each year, up from 12 days, according to Professor Dee's paper. He called the findings "a canary in the coal mine" for public education. If absences continue to be elevated, they could threaten student learning and children's mental health.