It Begins: Children Missing From Alabama Schools

Just a day after Alabama’s harsh immigration law went into effect, Latino students have apparently started to vanish from that state’s publish schools. Specifically, 200 in Montgomery County were absent, a handful have withdrawn and 35 withdrew from Albertville in one day.

One of the worst provisions of the law was that public schools would have to verify a students’ legal status. The Associated Press reported:

Education officials say scores of immigrant families have withdrawn their children from classes or kept them home this week, afraid that sending the kids to school would draw attention from authorities.

There are no precise statewide numbers. But several districts with large immigrant enrollments – from small towns to large urban districts – reported a sudden exodus of children from Hispanic families, some of whom told officials they would leave the state to avoid trouble with the law, which requires schools to check students’ immigration status.

The anxiety has become so intense that the superintendent in one of the state’s largest cities, Huntsville, went on a Spanish-language television show Thursday to try to calm worried parents.

There are several pending lawsuits over this law.