“If you’re worried that you’ll go home and your parents won’t be there, you’re not worried about doing well on your algebra exam,” said Tina-Marie Zuber, a math teacher at Grover Cleveland HS in Ridgewood, Queens.

Zuber, the UFT chapter leader at her school, said the escalation of detentions and deportations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has taken a visible toll on student engagement. Like many UFT members, she’s seen anxiety grow and participation drop, from distractedness in class to frequent absences.

Across the city, the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda has cast a shadow over public schools. Though ICE agents have not attempted to enter a New York City public school, school communities cannot shield students and families from detentions that occur as they go about their daily lives beyond school walls.

Attendance data from the DOE, though limited this early in the school year, backs up educators’ claims about attendance issues. In the first week of December, schools with a high percentage of English language learners (defined as higher than 78%) reported an attendance rate of 80.7%. All other schools reported an attendance rate of 87%, a 6.3-point difference.

At Grover Cleveland, Zuber and her colleagues fielded worried questions from students in June after an 11th-grader was detained. The student, arrested by ICE following a routine asylum hearing, was released over the summer and returned to school in September.

“If he’s doing the right thing, why are you detaining him?” Zuber asked. “It’s so upsetting to see.”

A similar situation unfolded at Gotham Collaborative HS in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx, where another student was detained and later returned. Educators there say acknowledging the injustice is essential to supporting students.

“Our kids are smart, and they understand things,” said Lia Jaffery, the school social worker. “We don’t want to gaslight our kids by saying this is normal or OK when it’s not.”

Instead, staff emphasize that the school is safe and show students concrete ways to respond.

“Students are clear that school is a safe space for them to be,” said Niove Theoharides, an ENL teacher at Gotham. After their classmate was detained following an immigration hearing, she said her students felt reassured by the staff’s openness and willingness to answer their questions. “That quickly led to solidarity,” she added.

Students wrote notes of support to their classmate in detention. Teachers recorded video messages. According to the student’s lawyer, Theoharides said, the teenager “couldn’t stop smiling” when he received everything.

When the student returned in November, Jaffery and several teachers sat with him to ask what he needed and how they could help him readjust.

Thirty-five miles away, at Port Richmond HS on Staten Island, UFT members have mobilized on behalf of a former student who graduated this June after she was detained by ICE in October.

Ana Sanabria, a Spanish teacher at Port Richmond, recalled the young woman, who enrolled as a 10th-grader in 2023 after immigrating from Colombia, as “respectful, generous and caring,” someone who looked after classmates by offering snacks.

After the detention, Port Richmond staff leapt into action. They organized a demonstration on Nov. 8 outside the office of U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of Staten Island to urge her to intervene. They also contributed money for the alumna’s food and toiletries.

Sanabria said she was proud of her colleagues. “The whole school is very caring,” she said. “Seeing them show up for a student who already graduated says a lot about them.”

After the former student was released in early December, she returned to Port Richmond HS on Dec. 4 to visit the school’s multilingual learners and encourage them “to do well in school,” said Marie Bresowsky, the UFT chapter leader. “She truly is an inspiration.”

Even in schools where no students have been detained, educators say fear is widespread.

“It’s a really tough year,” said Julie Skiddell, an ENL teacher at John Adams HS in Ozone Park, Queens. “The vibe is gloomy.”

Skiddell said contacting immigrant parents has been harder than ever. Some students stopped attending or never returned in September, and she has been unable to locate them.

“I never thought this would happen — that my students would be living in this abject fear,” she said.

Yet despite the bleakness of the situation, educators remain committed to protecting their students and advocating for them.

“The system is broken,” said Wanda Linares, the chapter leader at Gotham. “But if we give into despair, nothing will change.”