By John T. Farinella, Esq., Coordinator of Legal Education/LEGAL ONE and NJPSA Legal Counsel
In January 2026, the New Jersey Safe Schools Act (SCA) , P.L. 2025, c.401, took effect. At its core, the SCA seeks to improve and maintain community safety, to foster public trust, and to protect access to essential services. For New Jersey schools, the underlying backbone for this legislation is the need for schools to protect students’ rights.
As required under the SCA, the New Jersey Attorney General issued a Model Policy, the Safe Communities Act Model Policy for Pre-K-12 Schools, governing access of immigration officers to schools and related access to student information and records. Specifically, the Model Policy restricts federal immigration authorities from entering areas of school property that are not generally open to the public absent a judicial warrant, other judicial order, or emergency that creates exigent circumstances. Additionally, requests for student information and records are similarly constrained. Below are some of the key aspects of the SCA and related Model Policy.
All New Jersey public school districts are required to adhere to either the model policy or a policy that provides even greater protections for students. For school districts that have not yet incorporated the model policy into your district policy, it is critical to do so.
Defining Public and Non-Public Spaces
In general, schools must prepare for the possibility of immigration enforcement showing up at the schoolhouse gate. As with all outside individuals seeking access to students or student information, established school policies must be in place to protect students and their personal information. As such, the Model Policy indicates that local policies must categorize and prominently label areas in a school where and when the public may have access or not. Note that it does have to be an “all or nothing” designation. For example, an auditorium or a gymnasium is publicly accessible at designated times for events that are typically school-sponsored and/or are otherwise open to the public. These events might include basketball games, concerts, back-to-school nights, college fairs, etc. At other times, usually during the school day and when classes may be occurring, these same spaces will be non-public spaces. Why is this public versus non-public designation so important? Specifically, schools must always restrict access to all non-public areas within a school. While defining public and non-public areas is required under the Model Policy, it is a very important process to follow even beyond immigration enforcement concerns. For example, we would not want strangers spending time on a school playground at a time when school is in session and students are using the playground.
Who decides on what is a public versus non-public space? School leaders and/or school boards determine when and where a space is accessible to the public, including at school-sponsored activities off school premises. On or off campus, the Model Policy emphasizes that access to public and non-public areas in our schools must be clearly marked at this juncture.
Training for School Staff
In addition, the Model Policy highlights that there must be intensive staff training to ensure that coherent procedures are followed when and if immigration enforcement officers show up. In practice, this requires articulated training tailored for the differentiated levels of school staff. School districts should prioritize training for school safety personnel, front-office staff, receptionists, secretaries, and any designated administrators, with training for these frontline staff members ideally occurring within the first thirty (30) days of the new school year, with training for all other staff within ninety (90) days overall and then annually thereafter.
Essential Questions to Ask During an Encounter with Immigration Enforcement Officials
The Model Policy includes essential questions for school employees to ask when faced with a request by immigration enforcement to access non-public and/or public areas. These include the following:
1. Can the immigration officers meet the access conditions for the space?
i. If the space is public, then the immigration officers may have the same access afforded other members of the public.
ii. If the space is non-public, do immigration officers have adequate legal documentation (a judicial warrant/order (signed by a judge)) to enter the non-public space? If adequate legal documentation exists, then immigration officers may enter only the specific location identified in the judicial warrant/order and only to the extent specified in the judicial warrant/order.
2. Are the immigration enforcement officers asserting that an exigent circumstance exists (threats to life and/or safety)?
If that is the case, then no warrant is required, and the immigration enforcement officers must not be impeded from entering the space, but such entry shall be limited to address the exigent circumstance /emergency only.
Requests for Access to Student Records
Additionally, should requests by immigration enforcement officers for student records or information occur, school staff similarly maintain the authority to control access to all student information. That said, the Model Policy outlines for school staff the following guidance in determining what, if any, student information or records may be disclosed to immigration officers.
Can immigration officers compel staff to speak to them about students or compel them to disclose student records?
i. School staff are not required to answer ICE questions, assist officers, or reveal student whereabouts absent a judicial warrant/order (signed by a judge). Note: A judicial warrant is a legal document to facilitate the judicial warrant’s purpose. It is signed by a judge and is based upon the legal determination by the judge under the legal standard of “probable cause.” It is not the same as an administrative warrant that is merely signed by an immigration officer without any judicial review by a judge for “probable cause.”
ii. The release of student records under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and NJ Law requires legal notice to parents prior to any disclosure. In New Jersey, 3-days’ notice to parents is required before producing protected records, even under court order (unless court-prohibited).
iii. Even Directory information (e.g., student name, address, phone number, birthday, email), with or without parent opt-out, should not be released without getting advice from legal counsel.
Revising Emergency Drills to Address Immigration Enforcement Issues
In addition to school staff knowing how to control access to school facilities and how to protect student information and records, school staff must practice emergency drill scenarios that now include the possibility of immigration enforcement officers on the school campus. All staff—paraprofessional aides, custodians, secretaries, teachers, building administrators, and central office administrators—must be prepared. That said, emergency drills are already practiced regularly each month in schools. At this juncture, table-top discussion drills, shelter-in-place drills, and evacuation drills must cover the possibility of the uninvited presence of immigration enforcement at our schools. In so doing, school employees can more effectively protect the rights of our immigrant students and their families while not interfering with legitimate immigration enforcement.
Foreseeable Legal Issues
If school districts fail to adopt, publicize or provide training on the protocols laid out in the model policy, many foreseeable legal issues may occur. These include:
- Violation of student confidentiality rights through improper sharing of information with immigration enforcement officials about specific students;
- Improper granting of access to school facilities and students where immigration enforcement officials lack a judicial order or justifiable exigent circumstances;
- Interference with immigration enforcement officials and potential obstruction of justice charges by well meaning staff members who do not know proper protocols for observing and potentially recording immigration enforcement officials;
- Chaotic situations occurring and emergency protocols not being known or failed due to failure to incorporate immigration enforcement issues into school security drills and school safety plans; and
- Failure to designate or clearly mark public v. non-public spaces resulting in immigration enforcement officials and other unknown persons having access to students in spaces that should have been designated as non-public.
Key Takeaways
At a minimum, school districts must be guided in their local preparedness for the possibility of immigration enforcement officers showing up by addressing the following items outlined in the Model Policy:
1) Identifying a designated building administrator or administrators who should be immediately notified of the presence of immigration officers on school grounds or at school-sponsored events off school grounds;
2) Activating practiced school-wide response protocols such as a shelter-in- place should the need to do so arise;
3) Identifying and training frontline staff such as security officers, secretaries, and custodians on how best to direct and/or collect information from immigration officers;
4) Having procedures for reviewing and vetting legal documents presented by immigration officers;
5) Knowing the boundaries of how to protect student information and student privacy interests when faced with information requests by immigration enforcement—whether in-person or electronically;
6) Being prepared to keep parents informed of immigration enforcement actions at school;
7) Knowing when immigration enforcement is permissible at school, avoiding interference and/or obstruction of permitted immigration enforcement
8) Having sound procedures, along with adequate training of school staff on how to record and maintain comprehensive business records that reflect an accurate account of any immigration enforcement encounters at our schools;
9) Maintaining established and articulated lines of communication with all stakeholders for internal communication with emergency management and for external communication procedures for all school stakeholders, including parents, local law enforcement, and local government;
10) Maintaining a comprehensive response team of all school staff responsible for providing social, emotional, and counseling support to address the trauma that results from any perceived or real immigration enforcement action that impacts the safety and well-being of all members of the school community, especially targeted immigrant students and their families; and
11) Posting information on district websites about school access policies in English and in the common languages spoken in the community.
To summarize, school districts can and must prepare for the possibility of immigration enforcement showing up at the doorstep of the schoolhouse. Essentially, schools cannot operate effectively unless the longstanding mission of our public schools to educate all students is vigilantly protected. While school leaders and staff face potential legal liability for failing to handle the presence of immigration enforcement officers at our schools properly, school officials have a far higher and more noble purpose that champions the need to keep schools safe and vibrant for all. Schools primarily exist to help educate all students to access what Chief Justice Warren once described in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) as “[a] principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing [them]for later professional training, and in helping [them] to adjust normally to [their] environment.” That said, school officials are strongly encouraged to review and expand their knowledge regarding the Safe Communities Act and the Safe Schools Model Policy for Pre-K-12 Schools. While this article is not intended to provide legal advice, it is offered as a starting point for districts to address the issues that affect the safety and stability of a school community should an immigration enforcement issue present itself or in the event an immigration enforcement action occurs.
Additional Resources
For those interested in learning about the key legal issues related to immigration enforcement and the rights of students see the resources provided below:
Schwartz, Robert. “Primer – Undocumented Students – NJPSA Legal Department.” NJPSA and FEA, 23 Jan. 2025, njpsa.org/primer-undocumented-students-njpsa-legal-department/.
Nash, David. “Protecting the Rights of Undocumented Students.” NJPSA and FEA, 3 Oct. 2025, njpsa.org/protecting-the-rights-of-undocumented-students/.
Nash, David. “Attendance & Residency Considerations Pertaining to Undocumented Students and Families in NJ Schools.” NJPSA and FEA, 2 Oct. 2025, njpsa.org/attendance-residency-considerations-pertaining-to-undocumented-students-and-families-in-nj-schools/.
“Official Site of the State of New Jersey.” School-Related State and Federal Requirements Pertaining to Immigrant Students and Families, www.nj.gov/education/security/studentrights/. Accessed 13 Aug. 2026.
Comesanas, Katilyn. “ELC, ACLU-NJ and NJCIC Sent a Letter Today to All NJ School Districts Detailing Legal Rights of Immigrant Students.” Education Law Center, 5 Feb. 2026, edlawcenter.org/elc-and-partners-send-letter-to-all-nj-school-districts-detailing-legal-rights-of-immigrant-students/.
“Immigrants’ Rights.” ACLU of New Jersey, 23 July 2025, www.aclu-nj.org/issues/immigrants-rights/.