FOLLOWUP: Seattle Public Schools updates, clarifies policies on reports of – or actual – ICE activity

Eight days after rumors of ICE presence led to four Seattle Public Schools campuses (none in West Seattle) going into shelter-in-place mode, the district has a new webpage and policies to address those types of concerns and others surrounding immigration-enforcement operations. They were briefly presented and discussed in the first 50 minutes of tonight’s special meeting of the Seattle School Board (the second part of the meeting, still under way, is a budget update).

First – here’s the slide deck from the presentation/discussion. It includes word of this new page on the district website devoted to the topic. Here are the toplines on dealing with “reports or rumors” of ICE activity near schools:

What if agents actually show up on campus? That was addressed too, with superintendent Fred Podesta noting it’s similar to how they deal with any type of law-enforcement officer turning up:

And finally, a resource page:

District officials say the updated policies and clarifications will be discussed with building leaders this Friday; how they’re rolled out to the rest of school staffs, they said, is up to building leadership. They said the point of the policies is to be simple and easily committed to memory, so no one will have to “run for a three-ring binder” to figure out what action to take.

3 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: Seattle Public Schools updates, clarifies policies on reports of - or actual - ICE activity"

  • Lucy January 29, 2026 (6:54 am)

    I support legal immigration.  

  • anonyme January 29, 2026 (8:17 am)

    How insane is it that we’ve been forced to go to these lengths to protect children from the lawless acts of our own government?  All these thugs need are brown shirts; we are repeating the worst of our history, having learned absolutely nothing.

  • Westside Alum January 29, 2026 (10:05 am)

    Congratulations Brickrolled (great name btw!) and best wishes at FLL State Champs and hopefully Worlds! Hope you have a lot of fun celebrating your accomplishments this season. I’m in my senior year on FRC 9442 and can attest that FIRST Robotics can enrich your lives in so many ways. Enjoy the journey ahead and the bigger robots to come!

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