Eugene, Springfield schools will notify families, staff of immigration enforcement

Eugene and Springfield school districts will now notify families and staff when federal immigration authorities show up on school grounds, a new requirement under state law.

The Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 4079 in March, giving school districts and public higher education entities until Sept. 30 to adopt policies for how to interact with immigration enforcement authorities.

Eugene School District 4J, Springfield Public Schools and Bethel School District all passed their policies in September, which include not only the new requirement to notify a school community when immigration officers are on school grounds, but also establish a go-to administrator to handle all federal immigration authority requests, a standardized response across all schools and required training for all school staff.

“This is not simply about adopting language to meet a statutory requirement, it is about making sure that if an immigration enforcement situation occurs, our employees know exactly what to do, who to contact, and who has the authority to make decisions,” said Carmen Xiomara Urbina, 4J’s chief of staff, in a Sept. 2 school board meeting. “We do not want an individual teacher, secretary, principal, bus driver or other employee having to make a legal determination on their own.”

While all local districts already had procedures in place on how to interact with immigration officials, notifying the school community will be a new addition. 

A requirement to notify

Each district has a similar policy laying out what would happen if immigration enforcement officers come to a school. The process would happen something like this:

1. If a school staff member sees that immigration officers are on school grounds, an administrator or office coordinator will contact the district office. 
2. A district administrator will go to the school, confirm the officers’ identities, review and document information from the immigration authorities, possibly consult with legal counsel and determine if there is information that the district is required to share due to a valid judicial warrant. Administrative warrants, which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities sometimes use to arrest immigrants, are not valid.
3. The district will send out a notification to students’ guardians, staff at the school where immigration officers are or were located and “community-based service providers” who opt into receiving notifications. Each district has its own rules about at what age the district notifies students themselves if there is enforcement at their school. In Bethel, students in grade nine and up are notified via email. In 4J, students in grade six and up are notified and in Springfield, students in grade seven and up are notified.

Districts will send the message to guardians through email or the app ParentSquare, and will include where the officers were at the school and whether the officers’ presence affected school operations. According to the law, this will happen as “expediently as possible.”

A school official must confirm that the immigration officer is actually an immigration officer in order for the district to send out a notification. 

“Anytime there’s a black SUV that doesn’t have license plates or has California or Arizona license plates, we get reports of those in the community,” Bethel Superintendent Kraig Sproles said. “We’re not tasked with tracking those down.”

The immigration officers also must be on school grounds. Sproles said in the Sept. 9 school board meeting that immigration enforcement authorities have taken individuals into custody in front of Bethel’s Prairie Mountain School (he did not specify when), but the arrest was not on school grounds.

Limitations on the sharing of information

Districts’ policies emphasize schools’ limitations on what student and staff information can be shared due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, commonly known as FERPA, and put sole authority of sharing information with immigration enforcement officers on designated district officials.

This means staff members like front office workers and principals cannot, in any circumstance involving immigration enforcement, provide information on a student or staff member, confirm if someone is present, provide access to nonpublic areas of the school, sign documents or consent to officers taking students or staff into custody. According to Oregon law, designated district administrators would need a warrant, subpoena or court order signed by a judge in order to share information that would assist authorities carry out immigration enforcement.

Bethel Assistant Superintendent Remie Calalang also said if immigration enforcement officers approach Bethel bus drivers, they are instructed to close the bus door and contact the district office.

If a person claims to be an immigration officer but cannot prove it, the school would follow the same policies it follows for any member of the public, Calalang said. Everyone who visits a school must have a legitimate reason for being there, and if they do not, the school may ask them to leave. If the person does not leave, the school follows safety procedures that depend on the person’s level of risk. At Bethel, that includes contacting the district office, youth services officer or 911.