As a kindergarten teacher in the dual language program at Harmony Grove Elementary in Framingham, Shanna Landry instructs 5- and 6-year-olds.

Her classroom isn’t as full as it was at the start of the school year. Among 42 total enrolled students in two classes, seven students have stopped showing up since September. The empty seats are a stark reminder of the Trump administration’s intensive immigration deportation campaign.

The disruption to one student’s education started just three days into the school year, according to Landry. The student, whom she did not name, was absent, and a call home revealed he didn’t come to school because his father was at immigration court.

By December, the student was gone: His father had been deported, and the rest of the family moved to Brazil.

“This student was particularly motivated to learn,” Landry said, describing him as “sweet and caring.”

Kindergarten teacher Shanna Landry in her classroom at the Harmony Grove Elementary in Framingham, Mass. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

“It’s just unfortunate that he lost the opportunity to learn both languages in one classroom,” she said. “I just miss him personally a lot.”

Her students learn in English for half of the day, in Portuguese the other half. Most of the students’ families are Brazilian.

Kids in the class know why some of the students have left, Landry said, even if they don’t understand the broader context.

In one case, Landry said a student peeled off the name tag of a classmate following the winter recess, saying her friend had gone to Brazil.

“All the kids were just silent for a few minutes,” Landry said. “I was just really kind of humbled by how somber and seriously they took the situation. I’ve been teaching kindergarten for seven years and I have never seen them quite so empathetic.”

Framingham enrolled 719 fewer students compared to last school year, which represents “a significant drop” for the district, said superintendent Bob Tremblay. While there are other factors driving the decline — housing costs, for one — he said the downward shift is fueled by families’ fears of being torn apart.

“You have the fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, in the community,” he said. “And then also you have families that have left the country, left the city to go and seek refuge elsewhere for fear of being deported.”

“Framingham is a wonderfully diverse community and we don’t want to lose that.”

Christine Mulroney

ICE has been active in Framingham. Agents have been spotted just blocks away from her school, according to Landry. She said some parents shared concerns about sending their kids to school last spring, shortly after the government’s deportation campaign began.

Though the Department of Homeland Security says it does not “target” schools, children have been caught up in immigration sweeps. In January, a photo of agents in Minnesota detaining 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was wearing a floppy blue bunny hat and a Spider-Man backpack, made national news. He and his father were taken into custody after they returned home from school. A federal judge in Texas, where they were being held, ordered their release.

In January, Gov. Maura Healey filed legislation to bar ICE agents from entering schools, courthouses and hospitals in Massachusetts and signed an executive order to prevent agents from using state buildings for “staging.”

Tremblay, the Framingham superintendent, said school principals know to reach out to him directly if an agent enters one of their schools. (None have so far, he said.) The district also follows guidance from the state’s attorney general.

It’s not just kindergarteners missing school. Framingham High School enrolled 263 fewer students in October 2025 versus a year ago, according to state enrollment data. That’s a far greater dip than the previous school year, when there were just 11 fewer students.

Fewer enrollees means less state funding to schools. Framingham district leaders released a budget proposal that eliminates 84 staff positions, including a dozen ESL teachers across elementary and middle schools.

The Framingham School Committee will vote on the budget request to the mayor Wednesday night.

Many districts faced gradual student decline over the years, but an increase in English learners propped up total enrollment, said Paul Reville, a former Massachusetts secretary of education and professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Now those same districts will face budget challenges due to the recent drop in enrollment.

“A lot of their fixed costs stay, and yet the enrollment decreases and therefore the aid decreases, and then they’re thrown into budget crisis,” Reville said. That will translate to cutbacks in services, he added, and deal a blow to the region’s future workforce.

With immigration enforcement being a divisive issue nationally, some Framingham teachers have stood outside schools before the morning bell to send a message to the wider public.

Framingham Public Schools Superintendent Bob Tremblay (left) joins teachers at a “stand out” to support immigrants and welcome students as they arrive at Barbieri Elementary School. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Outside Barbieri Elementary on a cold December morning, a couple dozen teachers stood by the school entrance, holding signs in both Spanish and English that read, “Everyone is welcome here,” and “We love our immigrant families” to passing cars.

“We’re here to protect our community,” Framingham Teachers Association President Christine Mulroney said, shortly before joining the gathering. “Framingham is a wonderfully diverse community and we don’t want to lose that.

These teacher gatherings are taking place once a month for the rest of the school year, she said.

Landry, the kindergarten teacher at Harmony Grove, is mobilizing people in her free time. She lives in Milford, where the arrest of high schooler Marcelo Gomes da Silva last May haunted her.

The then-18-year-old was stopped by ICE agents while driving to volleyball practice. Though agents said they were looking for his father, the teen was detained for six days at the Burlington ICE facility after officials learned his visa to be in the U.S. expired.

The incident motivated Landry to act outside of the classroom. She volunteers with LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, where she trains people on how to identify ICE vehicles.

It’s a way for her to move past the grief and sadness over the impacts to her work and school communities, she said.

Back in class, Landry has tried to help her students cope with changes in the classroom makeup by staying positive. She tells them the students who moved to Brazil are making new friends.

“At some point you have to kind of pick yourself up and carry on,” she said, “and I want them to have those skills, too.”