Winter break is underway in the Coachella Valley. With the last school board meetings of the year wrapped up, schools are continuing to focus on how to best support students in 2025.
Also in this week’s education roundup: Local districts review policies to protect immigrant students in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration rhetoric; College of the Desert moves closer to recovering its pre-pandemic student enrollment; and a paid summer internship offers local students a path into healthcare careers.
More:Here’s when, where kids across the Coachella Valley can get free meals this winter break
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Palm Springs Unified passes resolution to protect immigrant students ahead of Trump presidency
At its Dec. 17 board meeting, just before winter break, Palm Springs Unified School District passed a resolution affirming equal access to education and services for all students, regardless of immigration status.
“This resolution is intended to remind and inform our community that we do not request or maintain any citizenship records for any student in our PSUSD family,” Superintendent Tony Signoret said. “But most importantly, is intended to inform our community that PSUSD and all our related programs shall be a safe place for every student, regardless of their immigration status.”
Signoret also referenced a press release from the California Department of Education, where State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond voiced support for Senate Bill 48. The bill, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, seeks to create a one-mile school safe zone to bar U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from campuses.
The legislation would require ICE to obtain a judicial warrant before entering schools and would prohibit police cooperation while strengthening safeguards against sharing education records or personal information with federal agents.
“SB 48 seeks to push back against threats of deportation that create fear in immigrant families. These practices suppress school attendance and rob schools of needed revenue,” Thurmond said in a press release.
In California, 93% of children who have one or more undocumented parents are U.S. citizens, the press release from the California Department of Education said.
Earlier this month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta updated guidance for public institutions — including K-12 schools and colleges — to align with state laws limiting participation in immigration enforcement activities in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation threats of undocumented immigrants.
At the Dec. 20 board meeting at College of the Desert, interim Superintendent/President Laura Hope, before her placement on administrative leave by the board, said that due to “current political discussions about mass deportations,” COD has begun a preliminary review of policies addressing the safety and security of its employees and students.
“There’ll be more review on that as we bring those policies to the trustees, but for our community, I want to flag that because it’s incredibly important that we do more than just say we support students, but that our policies follow that as well,” Hope said.
Full-time student enrollment up at College of the Desert
Over the summer, College of the Desert outlined its investment in services to boost student retention and graduation, aiming to increase enrollment and revenue, as it faces a potential $2.2 million loss if Indio’s campus doesn’t reach 1,000 full-time equivalent students and an additional $2.2 million if the college overall fails to meet roughly 10,300 FTE students by the end of the 2024-25 academic year.
Hope reported enrollment recovery efforts one semester into the academic year at the Dec. 20 board meeting, projecting a “very big jump” in FTE students from 9,625 in 2023-24 to 10,286 in 2024-25.
She credited COD’s deans, department chairs, the interim vice president of instruction to the office of institutional research for their contributions to the efforts. Hope noted that the college is using scheduling principles to track real-time progress toward targets, with programs like dual and concurrent enrollment, Rising Scholars and other key areas driving enrollment growth.
Scholarship Spotlight: Health Career Connection paid summer internship application now open
Health Career Connection’s paid summer internship program, in partnership with OneFuture Coachella Valley, helps students explore and pursue health careers while addressing the region’s healthcare workforce gap.
Aspiring local students who want to match with local host sites, including JFS of the Desert, COFEM Valle de Coachella, Kaiser and others, must be from the Coachella Valley.
Prospective applicants will undergo a holistic review process that evaluates their interest in healthcare careers, essay content and quality, participation in pathway or enrichment programs, leadership and initiative, lived and educational experiences, as well as other qualities.
The deadline to apply is Thursday, Jan. 30.
For more information: Visit bit.ly/HCC2025CV
This story was updated to correct a typo.
Jennifer Cortez covers education in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at jennifer.cortez@desertsun.com.