For the last two months of their life in the United States, José Alberto González and his family spent nearly all their time in their one-bedroom Denver apartment. They didn’t speak to anyone except their roommates, another family from Venezuela.

They consulted WhatsApp messages for warnings of immigration agents in the area before leaving for the rare landscaping job or to buy groceries.

But most days at 7:20 a.m., González’s wife took their children to school, determined to help them learn English and receive and American education.

Even as immigrants avoid going out in public, terrified of encountering law enforcement, families across the country are mostly sending their children to school.

But in some cases, families are telling local educators that they’re leaving. Departures in significant numbers could spell trouble for schools, which receive funding based on how many students they enroll.

Reporters from The Associated Press, the Hechinger Report and AL.com surveyed school districts and spoke to people around the country this spring. Here’s what we found after reaching out to more than 50 districts:

• Data obtained from 15 districts across eight states, including Alabama, showed a decline in school attendance after President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration and changes in immigration enforcement.
• In most places, attendance rebounded, but some districts are beginning to see immigrant families withdraw students.
• Some districts are worrying about lower summer school enrollment, an indicator that fall 2025 enrollment also may decline.
• Dozens of districts didn’t respond to requests for attendance data. Some said they feared drawing the attention of immigration enforcement.

Already, thousands of immigrants have notified federal authorities they plan to “self-deport,” according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Trump has encouraged more families to leave by stoking fears of imprisonment, government surveillance and offering people $1,000 and transportation out of the country.

On Feb. 28, González and his family boarded a bus from Denver to El Paso, where they would walk across the border and start the trip back to Venezuela. They had spent two years in the U.S. and had hoped to stay a decade.

Around the country, other immigrant families are debating what to do.

In Alabama, Alberto, a 50-year-old father of five who lives in Albertville, said he misses his elderly father in Guatemala. But he can’t envision moving his family back there, either. One son is in the U.S. Navy, another is about to join the military and his youngest child is about to start elementary school.

“It worries me, if they catch us, or what’s going to happen, I don’t know. What can we do?” he said. “They’re going to ask us for papers, and we don’t have any.”

For now, Alberto plans to stay, with his family. But other people in Albertville and around the country reported collecting documents, saving money and thinking about other opportunities if they need to leave town.

“The amount of fear and uncertainty that is going through parents’ heads, who could blame somebody for making a choice to leave?” said Andrea Rentería, principal of a Denver elementary school serving immigrant students. “I can tell them as a principal that I won’t let anybody in this school. Nobody is taking your kid. But I can’t say the same for them out in the workforce or driving somewhere.”

Families worry about safety at school

Historically, schools, hospitals and churches have been considered off-limits for immigration arrests. In January, the Trump administration cleared the way for enforcement at those locations.

Across Alabama, many school districts with large immigrant populations reported lower attendance during the first few weeks of Trump’s administration, particularly among students who are still learning English.

In Shelby County, schools saw a 16 percentage-point drop in English learner attendance during that time frame, while overall enrollment stayed flat.

Otilia Lopez, from Pelham, has lived in the U.S. for 25 years. She recalls back in February when some of her friends were scared to send their children to school.

“She called me crying,” she said of one friend who was scared of the possibility of ICE raids at her kids’ schools. She was also worried about getting deported herself and being separated from her children. One of her kids who could drive went to school, and “he got all his brothers and the cousins together and (brought) them home.”

Nationwide, schools are still reporting immediate drops in daily attendance during weeks when there is immigration enforcement — or even rumors of ICE raids — in their communities, said Hedy Chang of the nonprofit Attendance Works, which helps schools address absenteeism.

In Denver, attendance in public schools fell by 3% in February compared with the same period last year, with even steeper declines of up to 4.7% at schools primarily serving immigrant newcomer students. The deflated rates continued through March, with districtwide attendance down 1.7% and as much as 3.9% at some newcomer schools.

Some parents told Denver school staff they had no plans of nearing their children’s campus.

The Denver school district sued the government over Trump’s changes to enforcement in sensitive locations, saying attendance dropped “noticeably” across all schools, “particularly those schools in areas with new-to-country families and where ICE raids have already occurred.” A federal judge ruled in March the district failed to prove the new policy caused the attendance decline.

Some refugee families, even those who are living in the U.S. legally, are looking for yet another country that might let them safely live and work.

“I don’t want to be treated like a delinquent,” González, in Denver, said in Spanish. “I’m from Venezuela and have tattoos. For [Trump], that means I’m a criminal.”

“They’re thinking of doing that because then they can choose where to go. They’re afraid they’re going to be deported to a country that would be more unsafe for them,” said Meredith Gartin, president of the Alabama Interfaith Refugee Partnership.

Deciding to leave

In late February, González and his wife withdrew their children from school and told administrators they were returning to Venezuela. He posted a goodbye message on a Facebook group for Denver volunteers he used to find work and other help. “Thank you for everything, friends,” he posted. “Tomorrow I leave with God’s favor.”

Immediately, half a dozen Venezuelan and Colombian women asked him for advice on getting back. “We plan to leave in May, if God allows,” one woman posted in Spanish.

In Denver, 3,323 students have withdrawn from school through mid-April – an increase of 686 compared with the same period last year. Denver school officials couldn’t explain the uptick.

At the 400-student Denver elementary school Andrea Rentería heads, at least two students have withdrawn since the inauguration because of immigration concerns. One is going back to Colombia and the other didn’t say where they were headed.

School officials in Massachusetts and Washington state have confirmed some students are withdrawing from school to return to El Salvador, Brazil and Mexico. Haitians are trying to go to Mexico or Canada.

In Chelsea, Massachusetts, a 6,000-student district where nearly half the students are still learning English, a handful of families have recently withdrawn their children because of immigration concerns.

One mother in March withdrew two young children from the district to return to El Salvador, according to district administrator Daniel Mojica. Her 19-year old daughter will stay behind, on her own, to finish school – a sign that these decisions are leading to more family separation.

In Bellingham, Washington, two families withdrew their children after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in early April at a local roofing company, where agents arrested fathers of 16 children attending Bellingham schools. Both families returned to Mexico, family engagement specialist Isabel Meaker said.

“There’s a sense, not just with these families, that it’s not worth it to fight. They know the end result,” Meaker said.

Where are students, families going?

Countries with large populations living in the United States are seeing signs of more people wanting to return home.

Applications for Brazilian passports from consulates in the U.S. increased 36% in March, compared to the previous year, according to data from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. Birth registrations, the first step to getting a Brazilian passport for a U.S.-born child, were up 76% in April compared to the previous year. Guatemala reports a 5% increase over last year for passports from its nationals living in the United States.

Last month, Melvin Josué, his wife and another couple drove four hours from New Jersey to Boston to get Honduran passports for their American-born children.

It’s a step that’s taken on urgency in case these families decide life in the United States is untenable. Melvin Josué worries about Trump’s immigration policy and what might happen if he or his wife is detained, but lately he’s more concerned with the difficulty of finding work.

Demand for his drywall crew immediately stopped amid the economic uncertainty caused by tariffs. There’s also more reluctance, he said, to hire workers here illegally.

“I don’t know what we’ll do, but we may have to go back to Honduras,” he said. “We want to be ready.”

What’s next for schools?

The size of the exodus and its impact on schools remains unclear, but already some are starting to worry.

A consultant working with districts in Texas on immigrant education said one district there has seen a significant drop in summer school sign-ups for students learning English.

“They’re really worried about enrollment for the fall,” said Viridiana Carrizales, chief executive officer of ImmSchools, a nonprofit that advises school districts how to meet the needs of immigrant students and their families.

Education finance experts predict budget problems for districts with large immigrant populations.

“Every student that walks in the door gets a chunk of money with it, not just federal money, but state and local money, too,” said Marguerite Roza, a Georgetown University professor focusing on education finance. “If a district had a lot of migrant students in its district, that’s a loss of funds potentially there. We think that’s a real high risk.”

Trump’s offer to pay immigrants to leave and help them with transportation could hasten the departures.

González, now back in Venezuela, says he wouldn’t have accepted the money, because it would have meant registering with the U.S. government, which he no longer trusts. And that’s what he’s telling the dozens of migrants in the U.S. who contact him each week asking the best way home.

Go on your own, he tells them. Once you have the cash, it’s much easier going south than it was getting to the U.S. in the first place.

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AP writer Jocelyn Gecker contributed to this report.