Perspective | Showing up with care: Community, safety, and belonging in 2026
As we step into 2026, we’re listening closely to the realities shaping nuestra comunidad. Across North Carolina and the country, immigration actions and rhetoric continue to create fear and disruption for students, families, and educators.
Parents are asking hard questions about their children’s education, and educators are speaking with urgency about what they need to do to keep showing up for their students with care while keeping themselves and others safe.
This moment calls for steadiness, clarity, and staying informed. We’re navigating this together, step by step, grounded in comunidad, shared care, and hope.
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What schools are being told
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) recently shared guidance with districts on school attendance and harassment or bullying of immigrant students. Here’s what you need to know:
- Attendance rules have NOT changed: North Carolina’s compulsory attendance law still applies for students ages 7-16.
- Fear of immigration enforcement does NOT automatically excuse absences: Absences must meet State Board rules (e.g. illness, medical appointments, religious observance). Schools may excuse absences under local policy with required documentation.
- Mental health matters: Anxiety or other mental health conditions may qualify as excused absences when properly documented.
- All students have the right to attend public school: All students, regardless of immigration status, are protected by federal and state law.
- Harassment or bullying is prohibited: Harassment or bullying based on race, national origin, or perceived immigration status is prohibited and illegal.
Schools must enforce attendance laws as written and actively protect immigrant and Latine students, regardless of their immigration status. Safety, education access, and dignity are not optional.
What this moment asks of our schools
We want to uplift a powerful op-ed from The 74 titled, “When Immigration Policy Collides With Schools, Students and the Community Suffer.” The piece names what many of our educators are experiencing in real time.
Drawing on national survey data, the author describes how immigration enforcement near schools is contributing to increased absenteeism, anxiety, bullying, and even families leaving their communities altogether. These conditions disrupt learning and erode trust, especially for students from immigrant families.
Resources like, “Beyond Protection: An Administrator’s Guide to Building Belonging for Immigrant-Origin Students” offer practical, school-based strategies for educators and leaders committed to moving from protection to true belonging.
The message is clear: Schools must move beyond crisis response and toward building schoolwide cultures of belonging, where students feel safe, supported, and affirmed.
Opportunities for students
As we continue to protect and support our comunidad, access to postsecondary opportunities remains essential. No student’s dreams should be limited by economic barriers or their immigration status.
TheDream.US is the nation’s largest organization supporting Dreamers at the intersection of higher education, workforce development, immigration, and advocacy. Their scholarships expand higher education opportunities for highly motivated undocumented students.
- Opportunity Scholarship: For students without legal status who live in targeted “locked-out” states where they are either required to pay out-of-state tuition or prohibited from enrolling in the state’s colleges and universities altogether. Apply by: Jan. 31, 2026.
- National Scholarship: For students without legal status who are eligible for in-state tuition or are attending a private partner institution, to attend a Partner College in their state or online, at one of Dream.US’s National Partner Colleges. Apply by: Feb. 28, 2026.
As we move into the year ahead, we will continue listening closely to families, educators, and students while building pathways rooted in care, belonging, and possibility.
The shifts are real, but so is the power of comunidad when we move together.