Boston Mayor Wu expects deportation fears to affect school attendance

Ahead of Boston’s first day of school on Thursday, Mayor Michelle Wu said she expects some families to keep their kids out of school because of concerns around immigration enforcement.

In an interview with WBUR’s Morning Edition, Wu also discussed a recent independent review of Boston's school bus safety policies.

Here are the takeaways from the conversation:

The mayor said that urban school systems around the country, including Boston Public Schools, are anticipating declines in attendance.

“Immigrant families are either scared and worried about bringing their kids to school, or are retreating into the shadows, or have been removed from our communities,” Wu said. “We anticipate that that will show up in the enrollment numbers.”

Wu said enrollment numbers will be finalized Oct. 1.

After taking office, the Trump administration ended an established policy that restricted federal agents from making immigration arrests at sensitive locations, like schools.

But Wu said officials are communicating with school leaders and families that Boston does not collaborate with federal agents without a criminal warrant.

“We do not allow adults who are not affiliated with a school for any reason to enter school building as part of the general safety of our children and of the students in BPS,” said Wu.

The mayor said that she hopes clarity around Boston’s policies will help mitigate enrollment drops.

City officials are considering their next steps following a review of their school bus contractor, Transdev.

The report came after a school bus driver struck and killed 5-year-old Lens Joseph in Hyde Park in April.

“The report is an investigation or review not only of Transdev, but of Boston Public Schools and our city's own oversight  the contract,” Wu said. “And I think it lays out very clearly in those pages that more should have been done and more needs to be done on all fronts.”

She added that the city is looking at “what structure makes the most sense” when it comes to future bus contracts. Outside contractors, Wu said, are not subject to the same accountability as internal city departments.

Wu said Boston didn’t have a lot of options when it chose Transdev to be its school bus operator in 2023. Transdev was the only company that put forth an official bid. The city is responsible for providing school bus services to students in public, charter and parochial schools in Boston, making transportation trickier to manage.