Enrollment numbers in K-12 schools are dropping significantly in Massachusetts, and the impact of immigration enforcement might be a major factor.
That's according to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, which released a report on Wednesday focused on declining enrollment numbers in Massachusetts public schools, particularly among English learners.
"From October 2024 to October 2025, we lost about 14,600 students. And 46% of those were English learners," said Anthony Clough, the K-12 and higher education analyst with MassBudget who wrote the report.
He said English learner students are not always immigrants or children without status, and vice versa. There are U.S.-born students who are developing an English proficiency, and many immigrant students who are already proficient in English.
"However, English learner status is currently the closest proxy available in publicly reported education data for tracking trends that may affect immigrant communities," he said. "So what the data shows is that the student population has grown year-over-year since the pandemic until this year, when it declined by 6,800 students."
The enrollment figures will ultimately impact the fiscal year 2027 budget the state is currently working on.
The report focused on Gateway Cities, mid-sized municipalities with lower incomes and lower educational attainment than the state average. While some other cities with large immigrant populations saw steeper declines — the number of English learners in Framingham was 11%, higher than any Gateway City — MassBudget said it decided to focus on those communities because "they are the least fiscally able to meet the budget gap that is created by these high need students leaving the district."
English learner enrollment declined in 22 out of 26 Gateway City public school districts.
"Given continual, harsh, and life-altering federal immigration enforcement activity, it is reasonable to suspect that these conditions are discouraging some immigrant children, and others perceived as not fully proficient in English, from attending school," the report said.
Revere, Everett, Leominster, Methuen and Chelsea saw the largest drops in enrollment.
The enrollment decline has become far more concentrated among English learner students in fiscal 2027 than during the COVID-19 pandemic, which also saw a drop.
English learners generate additional aid through the state Chapter 70 formula because districts often need additional resources to support language acquisition and academic success, according to the report. That means the loss of English learners will cause greater financial strain on district budgets than the loss of other students.
Clough said research he reviewed shows that current immigration enforcement tactics may affect school attendance, increased student absences and higher levels of emotional distress and PTSD symptoms.
"The data that we analyzed aligns with what we're hearing from our grassroots partners representing impacted families in Massachusetts. Families and educators are describing fear, instability, and reduced school participation connected to this enforcement activity," he said.
Chelsea is down at least 350 students, and about 242 were multilingual learners said Almi Guajardo Abeyta, superintendent of Chelsea Public Schools. She explained in a phone interview that many families are self-deporting.
"We had not experienced that before. ... anecdotally, talking to families, a lot of families did self-deport," she said. "And a lot a families moved to different states, where maybe ICE didn't seem to have as much a presence, maybe where they thought they'd feel safer. And then we have normal mobility within the state of Massachusetts, too."
Sarah Neville, member of the Chelsea School Committee, described what the parents and students who are English learners—many of whom are immigrants— are seeing that ultimately influences their decisions to go to school.
"During those surges like Operation Patriot and Operation Patriots 2.0, our whole community knew that ICE was just hanging around on our street corners. There was a time last October where ICE was actually hanging out in the parking lots of our elementary school all day," she said, adding that it's happened less lately.
"It does affect whether parents are sending their kids to school or whether they're walking or taking the bus or taking a car. And it affects parents' day-to-day decision-making on education, on everything, in every part of their lives," she said.
Superintendents from other districts didn't return requests for comment.
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