How a retired educator is helping Colorado school leaders prepare for potential immigration raids

In The NOCO

Leaders in Colorado are grappling with how to respond to the Trump administration's immigration policies that might affect students. State lawmakers last week gave initial approval to a bill that would limit cooperation between federal immigration officials and public schools.

And for months now, education leaders have been gathering advice on how to respond if immigration raids affect students in their schools.

One person they got advice from was Steve Joel. He was the superintendent of schools in Grand Island, Nebraska, when immigration officers raided a meat packing plant there in 2006, detaining about 250 workers without legal status.

Those arrests in Grand Island rattled the community. And the experience taught the now-retired administrator many lessons, which he recently shared with education leaders at a conference of the Colorado Association of School Boards.

Steve spoke with Erin O’Toole in January about his advice for Colorado educators in the months ahead.

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Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.