Los Angeles Unified School District saw a record first-day turnout Thursday, Aug. 14, despite community fears over recent immigration raids, with preliminary attendance 2% higher than last year, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.
“It was a great day of joy and happiness celebrated by students and parents and staff,” he said at an afternoon news conference at Garden High School after wrapping up an eight-stop tour across the city to greet students, teachers and families.
Roughly 540,000 students were expected to return to classes in the nation’s second-largest school district under the shadow of recent federal immigration raids, which district officials feared might keep some families home.
Instead, attendance reached about 92% of enrolled students — up from 90% last year — which Carvalho called “a record.” No incidents tied to immigration activity were reported at any campus on the first day, he said.
At Francisco Sepulveda Middle School in North Hills, cars inched forward in a neat line while Los Angeles school police and faculty stood at the gate and along the curb, directing families through drop off.
By mid-morning, students were already diving into lessons and catching up with friends underneath hallway posters declaring “words matter: there’s no room to hate.”
It was a calm, orderly start to Los Angeles Unified’s 2025-2026 academic year — a contrast to the unease that has gripped some neighborhoods after immigration enforcement operations intensified in June. Those operations, still unfolding as school opened, have left a direct mark on students and families in the district, from gunpoint detainments and rising virtual enrollments to widespread anxiety and community protests.
In response, LAUSD and partner agencies have established “safe zones” near about 100 campuses in heavily Latino neighborhoods, patrolled by school police, municipal officers and community volunteers. Bus routes have also been adjusted, and families can request special transportation accommodations to reduce students’ exposure to immigration enforcement.
The safety push, already underway, gained renewed urgency after two recent incidents involving LAUSD students, one of them a 15-year-old boy with disabilities.
Last Friday, 18-year-old Reseda Charter High School student Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz was arrested by immigration agents while walking his dog, just days before the start of his senior year.
Carvalho said during the press conference that the district is providing legal assistance to the family and shared that the student remains in detention in downtown Los Angeles in a “small space” with about 40 other men, most older than him.
According to his mother, the food is insufficient and there isn’t enough room for everyone to sit or lie down at the same time. When he was apprehended, Carvalho said, officials “let his dog go.”
U.S. Department of Homeland Security told KTLA that Guerrero-Cruz is a citizen of Chile who is in custody pending his removal and had overstayed his visa.
On Monday, a student with disabilities was briefly detained outside Arleta High School in what district officials called a case of mistaken identity.
In an emailed statement, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson denied that agents had targeted Arleta High School, saying the operation was aimed at a “criminal illegal alien” with suspected gang ties in the vicinity.
“Allegations that Border Patrol targeted Arleta High School are FALSE,” a CBP spokesperson said. “Agents were conducting a targeted operation on criminal illegal alien Cristian Alexander Vasquez-Alvarenga — a Salvadoran national and suspected MS-13 pledge with prior criminal convictions in the broader vicinity of Arleta.”
“Despite the fear and the anxiety in the community, I saw parents happy to have their kids in schools. I saw kids happy to see their colleagues,” Carvalho said after visiting Francisco Sepulveda Middle School. “There’s nothing like schools to bring about normalcy and restoring faith in the community.”
Board of Education President Scott Schmerelson, who represents District 3 in the West San Fernando Valley, said he had been unusually anxious heading into the first day.
“I didn’t sleep last night. I was very worried about today and now I feel so much better,” Schmerelson said. “This is the first time in 47 years that I was worried about the first day of school. I was just worried that maybe people will be afraid to come.”
That worry eased after visiting campuses in his district, where he found kids “as happy as could be” — and “packed” early-education classrooms.
While district officials reported strong turnout and morale on campus, staff at the Balboa Student and Family Wellness Center in Van Nuys said they are preparing for a rise in mental health needs in the weeks ahead.
“A lot of the psychiatric social workers over the summer reached out to me from different parts of the LAUSD already asking, ‘hey, I’m anticipating going back to my school, I’m going to have a high need, what do we do?’” said Juan Villa, a psychiatric social worker at the center. “I would anticipate a high volume of calls coming in.”
At Francisco Sepulveda Middle School, the impact was evident in some classrooms. Resource specialist teacher Kurt Hansen, who works with special education students, said five of the 24 students in his sixth-grade homeroom were absent on the first day.
“But the bottom line is, I don’t know why they’re not there, and we assume they would be,” he said.
Hansen, who lives in Pacoima, a largely Hispanic neighborhood, said he’s noticed fewer neighbors and vendors out in recent weeks. “People are afraid to go out,” he said, adding that the raids have left him concerned for his community.
Hamida Elshikh, who started eighth grade at the school this year, said that while the raids haven’t affected her personally, they’ve touched close friends and family friends.
“That topic is very sensitive to lots of people,” she said. “I think school is somewhere where you shouldn’t be scared of learning. It is something everyone should have the experience, everyone should be able to learn. Personally, it’s very heartbreaking to see.”
Carvalho marked the day with an eight-stop tour across the city that began before dawn at the Gardena Bus Yard in Harbor Gateway.
From there, he crisscrossed Los Angeles — greeting students in West Adams, Hollywood, the Eastside, North Hills, Van Nuys, and South Gate — before wrapping up with an afternoon press conference in Gardena. Along the way, he popped into classrooms, chatted with students and teachers, and even taught a brief lesson.
“Obviously, there are lingering concerns in a community specific to immigration raids, considering the number of families with a fragile immigration status,” said Carvalho, who visited Arleta High School earlier in the day. “But notwithstanding that challenge, we’re seeing, based on the data that we’re examining, a disproportionate percentage of kids and their parents are showing up.”