Union and community leaders urge district to empower school-based response plans for immigrant communities

Representatives from Madison Teachers, Inc. and other community organizers told the Madison board on April 28 that the district should enable school-level planning to protect immigrant students and staff from immigration-enforcement actions and to support organizing and safe responses in schools.

"I think this district has a lot of policies on paper to support immigrant communities but I think we've taken a very cautious approach," said a union representative. He said staff want to defend students and communities targeted by immigration enforcement and urged the district to avoid messages that unintentionally demobilize staff and families. "We need buildings to have community plans and approaches to unique situations within our neighborhoods and within our school buildings," he said, adding that plans should come "from the ground up, not from the top down."

Another speaker described an instance where a staff member was reportedly pulled into an administrator's office and warned about potential retaliation for permitting student-organized activity, and asked the district to clarify protections for staff who support student expression and organizing.

Speakers asked the board to review guidance to ensure school leaders are not discouraging community support efforts and to enable both staff and students to plan protective responses to enforcement actions. The concerns were raised during the public-input portion of the meeting and the board did not take immediate formal action on the request.

The testimony framed the request as both a policy and practice issue: speakers praised existing written protections but asked for clearer, school-level operational plans and consistent administrative messaging to support families, staff and student organizers when enforcement risks arise.