
From promises of departmental dissolution to nominating a sports entertainment mogul as the Department’s Secretary, the United States’ Department of Education has faced numerous turns in the first week of President Trump’s second term.
Despite the Department itself not unveiling any new policy changes, the roll-out of President Trump’s executive orders have had a trickle-down effect that stands to reshape America’s schools.
Of the many executive orders issued in President Trump’s first week, the two that have shown the greatest commotion in educator circles have been those concerning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and immigration reform. These orders could affect not only public K-12 schools but all schools, including private universities.
DEI Initiatives Eliminated
The executive order, issued on Jan. 21, 2025, proposes the elimination of all DEI initiatives across the federal government and places no restrictions on federal government workers.
While there is no immediate directive for school institutions, many have already scaled back their DEI policies in anticipation of directives from the Department of Education.
In the order, the Department of Justice and Department of Education are directed to issue guidance within 120 days that identifies “the measures and practices required to comply” with the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University case. This case deemed that Harvard University’s race-based affirmative action program was in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
In a press release published on Jan. 23, 2025, the Department of Education announced their elimination of DEI initiatives, “in line with President Trump’s ongoing commitment to end illegal discrimination and wasteful spending across the federal government.”
DEI policies are often viewed as efforts to create fairness and allow equal opportunity for historically disenfranchised and marginalized groups. Yet, President Trump’s policy sees DEI initiatives as harmful. According to the Department of Education, they intend to remove these initiatives, and associated staff, to “end discrimination based on race and the use of harmful race stereotypes.”
Alongside the elimination of DEI, the Department of Education has challenged the notion of book bans being a concern and removed the Biden-appointed “book ban coordinator” position in the Office of Civil Rights.
The Department of Education has further rescinded their guidance extending Title IX protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity, leaving uncertainty regarding how LGBTQ+ students would be protected under the law.
Immigration Restrictions
One of the more prominent running points of President Trump’s re-election was his foreign policy and immigration stance. In his first week, he has issued 2 executive orders which may impact immigrant students: Protecting the American People Against Invasion and Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.
The former may negatively impact institutions that enroll or offer in-state tuition to undocumented students, while the latter will complicate people seeking student visas. These executive orders may prove to take a hit on international student enrollment at the post-secondary level.
On January 21, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a memo overturning policies that had inhibited them from interrogating or detaining suspected undocumented migrants in “sensitive locations.” Among these sensitive locations is schools.
In 1993, the DHS published a memorandum preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workers from apprehending people in places of worship, schools, funerals, or other religious ceremonies. With the revoking of this memorandum, some schools worry about ICE arrests and interrogations being conducted on school grounds.
The DHS states that this memorandum will “empower the brave men and women in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens—including murderers and rapists—who have illegally come into our country.”
With schools no longer having this added security, many schools and immigrant parents worry about student attendance.
“The sensitive locations memo of the Department of Homeland Security is not the thing that made schools safe for children. It is the people in the school building that make schools safe for children,” said Alejandra Vázquez Baur, co-founder of the National Newcomer Network. “And we will continue to do so, not just because it’s moral, but because it’s still the law.”
It is difficult to quantify the number of undocumented children and families; however, the Migration Policy Institute suggests that as of 2019, approximately 5.5 million children lived with an undocumented parent.
Despite concerns over these limited protections for such a large, vulnerable student population, there are still clear protections in place for all people in the United States regardless of immigration status.
“Protecting sensitive locations from immigration enforcement is essential to ensuring all our community members can access basic services and support without fear — the policy’s rescission constitutes an attack on immigrant communities’ wellbeing and undermines safety for all,” said the National Immigration Law Center in a factsheet.
Many school officials have begun preparing their staff to understand how to handle the presence of ICE on school campuses, such as ensuring the agents have the appropriate warrant to be able to interview a student.
Furthermore, on school campuses, students’ records are protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), meaning an ICE officer cannot access that information freely.
The 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Plyler v. Doe still protects students’ constitutional right to a free, public education regardless of immigration status. This does not stop parents who elect to keep their students out of school as a precaution.
“If you constantly threaten people with the possibility of mass deportation, it really inhibits peoples’ ability to function in society and for their kids to get an education,” said Hiroshi Motomura, a professor at UCLA School of Law.
The Future of American Schooling
Despite the fears of some, there has yet to be any clear, decisive changes by the Department of Education. Students will continue to be protected under their constitutional right to an education no matter what that education will grow to become.
As President Trump awaits the Senate approval of Linda McMahon as his secretary of education, the Department of Education remains firm in upholding educational freedom, stating, “Education freedom ensures that a child’s opportunity to access a high-quality education and pursue the American Dream is not determined by his or her zip code.”
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