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The research assesses impacts of safe-zone policies on standardized math and English language arts test scores, absenteeism, and graduation rates, drawing on student-level data from California’s most unequal regions. Results show persistent disparities alongside evidence that safe-zone resolutions can help protect academic progression and students’ sense of belonging.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/safe-zone-schools-and-the-pursuit-of-equity-for-immigrant-youth/587986/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/safe-zone-schools-and-the-pursuit-of-equity-for-immigrant-youth/587986.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Bintang","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":34},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What problem do safe-zone school policies try to address for immigrant youth?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"They aim to counter the chilling effects of immigration enforcement in and around schools, supporting immigrant-origin students and families so children can keep learning and feel safer at school.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Which outcomes does the research evaluate to measure policy impact?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It evaluates standardized test scores in math and English language arts, absenteeism, and graduation rates to capture inequities in both access to learning and academic outcomes.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How do immigrant-origin students’ academic disparities appear in California?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The document reports gaps on standardized tests between Hispanic and White students, and larger gaps for Black students, with related patterns in absenteeism and graduation rates—especially as students move through middle and high school.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},587986,1792165608,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":34,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":44,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},962085564381,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","Safe-Zone Schools and the Pursuit of Equity for Immigrant Youth  \nCatalina Amuedo-Dorantes University of California, Merced  \nJosé R. Bucheli  \nThe University of Texas at El Paso  \nSuggested Citation  \nAmuedo-Dorantes, C., & Bucheli, J.R. (2026) . Safezone schools and the pursuit of equity for immigrant youth. William T. Grant Foundation. [https://](https://)[ ](https://)[wtgrantfoundation.org/digest/safe-zone-schools-and](wtgrantfoundation.org/digest/safe-zone-schools-and)the-pursuit-of-equity-for-immigrant-youth  \nAMUEDO-DORANTES & BUCHELI • 2026  \nA cross the United States, an estimated 6.3  \nmillion children under the age of 18 live with  \nat least one unauthorized immigrant parent. Over 5 million of those kids are U.S. citizens (Gelatt et al., 2025) . For these school-aged children, the classroom is not only a place of learning but also of refuge. Outside of school, many face a broader environment marked by immigration enforcement, family separation, and economic hardship. But even this refuge has limits, as the same climate of fear created by immigration enforcement and the threat of family separation seeps into schools, disrupts attendance, lowers test scores, and heightens anxiety (Bellows, 2019; Ee & Gándara, 2020) .  \nNowhere is this more palpable than in California, where about 20% of all children with unauthorized immigrant parents live (Gelatt et al., 2025) . In response, many school districts across the state have taken steps to support these families. In the wake of intensified federal enforcement and anti-immigrant rhetoric, hundreds of districts adopted “safe-zone” resolutions affirming schools as welcoming spaces for immigrant-origin students and their families. These policies, sometimes symbolic and sometimes far-reaching, represent an effort by local educators and communities to counter the chilling effects of immigration enforcement and ensure that every child has the chance to learn.  \nUnderstanding whether these policies make a difference for students requires looking at how they experience school and how they perform academically. With this in mind, our research examines the impact of safezone policies on standardized test scores in math and English language arts, absenteeism, and graduation rates to capture inequities in both access to learning and academic outcomes. Our work shows that while immigrant-origin students face persistent disparities, safe-zone resolutions can help protect their academic progression and sense of belonging (Amuedo-Doranteset al., 2022, 2023; Amuedo-Dorantes & Bucheli, 2024, 2025) .  \nPersistent Academic Disparities  \nCalifornia boasts the largest economy in the country, yet it also ranks among the most unequal states.  \nThese inequalities are especially acute in the Central and Imperial Valley regions, where large Hispanic, immigrant, and low-income communities contend with entrenched barriers to educational opportunity. Despite statewide reforms to address inequity, gaps persist.  \nDrawing on more than a decade of student-level data, we find that Hispanic students in these regions score five to six percentileslower on English language arts and math standardized tests than their White peers. Black students face even steeper gaps, trailing by nearly 11 percentile points. These disparities grow more pronounced in middle and high school, as academic trajectories solidify and future opportunities narrow. The disparities extend beyond test scores, with Hispanic, Black, and economically disadvantaged students exhibiting higher absenteeism and lower graduation rates (Amuedo-Dorantes & Bucheli, 2024) .  \nThese gaps are not abstract figures; they reflect lost opportunities for students and communities and signal a profound loss of human potential. As home to oneof the largest and youngest immigrant-origin student populations in the nation, California cannot afford to allow such disparities to persist.  \nImmigration Enforcement as a Barrier to Learning  \nEducational gaps do not exist ","cbCaipOQswdPOzL9","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipOQswdPOzL9","pdf",310115,"English","# Safe-Zone Schools and the Pursuit of Equity for Immigrant Youth\n## Persistent Academic Disparities\n## Immigration Enforcement as a Barrier to Learning\n## The Promise of Safe-Zone Resolutions","[{\"question\":\"What problem do safe-zone school policies try to address for immigrant youth?\",\"answer\":\"They aim to counter the chilling effects of immigration enforcement in and around schools, supporting immigrant-origin students and families so children can keep learning and feel safer at school.\"},{\"question\":\"Which outcomes does the research evaluate to measure policy impact?\",\"answer\":\"It evaluates standardized test scores in math and English language arts, absenteeism, and graduation rates to capture inequities in both access to learning and academic outcomes.\"},{\"question\":\"How do immigrant-origin students’ academic disparities appear in California?\",\"answer\":\"The document reports gaps on standardized tests between Hispanic and White students, and larger gaps for Black students, with related patterns in absenteeism and graduation rates—especially as students move through middle and high school.\"}]","Safe-Zone Schools and the Pursuit of Equity for Immigrant Youth | PDF",1792063983,23]