Attorney General Bonta Releases Updated Guidance to Help California Schools Navigate Immigration Enforcement on their Campuses

OAKLAND — Following the passage of new laws, on December 1, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued updated guidance for students, families, educators, and school officials to help ensure a safe and secure school environment for all. Approximately 133,000 undocumented children attend California’s public K-12 schools, and many more have parents or relatives who do not have legal status. The updated model policies and recommendations released today are intended to help staff develop practical plans to protect the rights of immigrant students and their families to safely access schools, in accordance with state and federal laws. More resources can be found at oag.ca.gov/immigrant/resources.

“I know many California teachers and administrators are wondering how best to protect their students amid the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate, callous mass deportation campaign,” said Attorney General Bonta. “California cannot interfere with federal immigration enforcement, but we can and have chosen not to assist with the President’s inhumane agenda. We have a number of new laws on the books designed to protect the rights of California’s students to safely attend schools to the fullest extent allowable under the law. In California, our diversity is our strength, and we will continue to stand up for our immigrant communities in the face of relentless attacks from the federal government.”

While California cannot control the actions of federal immigration enforcement agencies, state and federal laws empower schools to welcome all students and to provide equal access to educational rights and opportunities. Since President Trump took office, the Attorney General has released a number of guidances to help California immigrants better understand their rights and protections under the law and assist law enforcement, prosecutors, and public institutions in complying with state law. In September and October 2025, the Governor signed into law several bills that amended Education Code section 234.7: AB 49 (Muratsuchi), AB 419 (Connolly), and AB 495 (C. Rodriguez). These changes, reflected in the updated guidance for educational institutions, include:

• Access to Nonpublic Areas: School officials and employees are prohibited from allowing federal immigration officers to enter a nonpublic area of a school for any purpose, unless the person seeking entry presents them with a valid judicial warrant, judicial subpoena, or a court order, or unless required by state or federal law or required to administer a state or federally supported educational program.
• Access to Documents or Information: Educational personnel are prohibited from disclosing or providing, in writing, verbally, or in any other manner, and to the extent practicable, any information about a pupil, including their education records, or information about the pupil’s family and household to an officer or employee of an agency conducting immigration enforcement, unless that officer or employee provides a valid judicial warrant, judicial subpoena, or court order requesting the information. This prohibition applies as well to any information about a school employee or teacher.
• Updating Model Policies: All local educational agencies must update existing policies to reflect all new requirements under California law by March 1, 2026.
• “Know Your Educational Rights”: Schools must provide the Attorney General’s “Know Your Educational Rights” guidance to parents and guardians and post this guidance in administrative buildings and online in every language provided by the Attorney General.

Attorney General Bonta also reminds California immigrant students and families of their rights under state and federal law, including:

• Right to a Free Public Education: All children have a right to equal access to free public education, regardless of their or their parents’/guardians’ immigration status.
• Information Required for School Enrollment: Schools must accept a variety of documents from the student’s parent or guardian to demonstrate proof of child’s age or residency, and schools are not required to keep a copy of the document used as proof of a child’s age.
• Confidentiality of Personal Information: Federal and state laws protect the confidentiality of student education records and personal information. These laws generally require, with narrow exceptions, that schools obtain written consent from parents or guardians before releasing student information, unless the release of information is for educational purposes, is already public, or is in response to a court order or subpoena.
• Right to File a Complaint: Your child has the right to report a hate crime or file a complaint to the school district if they are discriminated against, harassed, intimidated, or bullied because of his or her actual or perceived nationality, ethnicity, or immigration status.