Public school enrollments are dropping across America, causing significant funding pressures including some on Delmarva. Experts point to lower birth rates, more homeschooling, and pandemic-era shifts. But recently, another factor has come into the conversation: the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies, and its effects on children. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz looked into the local scene.
Lauren Hatch Pokhrel:
These families and others are becoming increasingly impacted by the insurgence of ICE here on the Eastern shore and in Wicomico County.
Kevin Diaz:
That was Lauren Hatch Pokhrel, a mother of two students in Wicomico public schools. She was speaking at a school board meeting in March.
Pokhrel:
Mothers, fathers and children are suddenly being picked up and separated from one another, inciting a terror and trauma that will last lifetimes.
Kevin Diaz:
Pokhrel, along with several other parents and educators, was calling attention to the trauma of immigration raids. One involved a mother dropping off her elementary school daughter in Salisbury. Wicomica County school officials say they've been taking steps to protect students. They offer counseling and mental health services, in accordance with Maryland law.
But what's unknown is the number of children who have left or been pulled out of school entirely by families fearing federal immigration arrest.
The question arises as every school district on the Eastern shore has seen enrollment drops since the 2024 school year. For Wicomico County, which includes Salisbury, the region's largest city, the drop was about 1.2%.
That translates into about 385 students, according to a spokeswoman for the Wicomico County school system. That drop comes from a confluence of factors. At the same time, the system has seen about 100 fewer multi-language learners. Oftentimes, those are children from immigrant families who speak a home language other than English. Officials say that number includes students who studied or tested out of the multi-language services and may well still be in school.
Meanwhile, immigration advocates concerned about those children have met with school officials in Salisbury. Some worried that many of the multi-language learners come from families affected by the ongoing immigration raids.
Bernadette Fouche:
It’s unknown, unknown based on what they said. They don't know. But the thing is, in terms of timing, it happens during the same time that all these activities were taking place into the area. So you can say it's a strange coincidence, but it's the timeline.
Kevin Diaz:
That's Bernadette Fouche, an advocate in the region's large Haitian community, now under threat from the Trump administration to lose their protected status. She was one of several immigration leaders who met with Wicomico County school officials recently to plead for new mental health protocols for children affected by the raids.
Fouche:
The numbers are going up also in terms of kids not showing up and in terms of people losing their job or family retracting from all kinds of activities.
Kevin Diaz:
Officials in Delaware are seeing the same pattern. Nearly 70% of Delaware school districts saw a decline in the number of multi-language learners during the 2025-26 school year. That's according to a Spotlight Delaware analysis. The citizenship status of those students varies. Whatever the causes, educators like Dorchester County School board member Chris Wheedleton look at the enrollment drops with alarm.
Chris Weedleton:
We are seeing very clear trends that start to make you wonder what is happening because, I don't think, I haven't seen anything that tells me that it’s the ICE crackdown on immigration. But I would be very curious and personally passionate about what the numbers look like on that. I know trend wise, all schools in the Eastern Shore are seeing that. I do think that's a statewide issue on enrollment trends going down.
Kevin Diaz:
With renewed attention on that trend, the schools could now be a new front in the debate over immigration. For Delmarva Public Media, this is Kevin Diaz.
