In the Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD), we believe that school is a place where every student should feel safe, welcome and connected. We also know that our community and our society as a whole is at its best when embracing diversity and demonstrating compassion, kindness, and mutual respect.
On February 6, 2025, the DJUSD Board of Education reaffirmed its commitment to the Principles of One Community, which was jointly adopted several years ago by DJUSD, the city of Davis and UC Davis. These principles, which ring just as true now as when they were adopted, acknowledge that within the single community there are many different voices and perspectives, and together they create the rich environment where our students can learn and flourish.
Our schools sit at the center of our community and provide the supports and resources that not only allow students to excel academically, but also enable them to feel healthy, safe, engaged, and valued. These principles also formed the foundation for the We All Belong Resolution, approved by the DJUSD Board of Education on February 2, 2017, and which provided a clear and transparent statement that DJUSD will be a place where all students, employees, and families feel welcome and safe regardless of their immigration status, race, color, ancestry, national origin, ethnic group identification, age, religion, marital or parental status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or gender expression. Specifically, it clarifies that the District does not ask about a student’s immigration status or collect information regarding a student’s and/or family’s immigration status when enrolling a student in the District. It also ensures that any law enforcement official who appears on campus asking to see a student or staff member, or requests information about a student or staff member, will be directed to the Superintendent’s office for review of the purpose and legality of their visit. These safeguards exist to ensure that all students and families, including those that are undocumented or marginalized, are able to receive education in a safe and supportive environment.
In Davis schools, when we say, “We All Belong,” we mean it. We also acknowledge the unfortunate truth that our schools, students and staff experience harm through dehumanizing words, behaviors, writings and symbols that come in many forms, including antisemitism, Islamophobia, sexism, anti-Arab, anti-Asian, anti-immigrant, ableism, anti-LBGTQIA+ and more. This year, we have students working to combat dehumanizing language. These students, working with staff, are reviewing data and brainstorming ways they can help to make important changes in behavior. We also introduced a new identity-based harm protocol related to vandalism, arson and break-ins, which provides transparent communication and consistent messaging when the harm involves dehumanizing words or symbols.
Let us reassure those in our community, especially in these times of uncertainty and fear for many, that DJUSD will stand firmly rooted in the values of Principles of One Community. We will consistently act in concert with these values and find strength in our sustained responsibility to one another.
Learn more about the Principles of One Community by visiting our webpage at www.djusd.net/OneCommunity.
Information about the We All Belong Resolution and related FAQs about DJUSD practices can be found at www.djusd.net/Belong.
Matt Best, DJUSD Superintendent
Joe DiNunzio, President of the DJUSD Board of Education
This guy (and those like him throughout California’s school districts) should be figuring out how to balance their own budget without relying upon funding for “undocumented students”.
Santa Rosa is closing down schools (and of course, is experiencing a lot of complaints from the relatively small groups directly impacted by that). Sometimes, with unfounded accusations of racism, etc. – a deflection from their actual self-interested concerns.
School districts aren’t concerned about communities at large – they’re only concerned about their own little kingdoms.
And since so few voters even pay attention to school board races (other than the small groups directly impacted), the result is that school boards are part of that kingdom – at the exclusion of the larger community.
“School districts aren’t concerned about communities at large – they’re only concerned about their own little kingdoms.”
You say that as though this were some sort of profound revelation.
School districts in general claim to be doing “God’s work”.
As such, I (used to) expect more of them in regard to the overall community.
California’s compulsory education laws require children between six and eighteen years of age to attend school.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that all children have a right to a free public education, regardless of immigration status.
The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment provides that no State shall “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” “Any person” includes students whose parents are undocumented or who may be undocumented themselves.
California’s Prop 187, passed by the voters in 1994, would have removed that right. That part was blocked by federal courts. Similar efforts in other states have also been blocked by the courts.
“An estimated 1 in 10, or 1 million, children in California have at least one undocumented parent. And about 133,000 children in California public schools are undocumented themselves, according to the Migration Policy Institute.”
https://timesofsandiego.com/education/2025/01/07/the-rights-that-immigrant-students-and-families-have-in-california-schools-a-guide/
The immigration status of a student should not be relevant. Children have a right to attend school, it is their guardian’s responsibility to ensure that they do so, and it is the district’s responsibility to ensure that they can do so safely and without discrimination or harassment.
This shouldn’t even be a subject of debate. I appreciate the Superintendent and the Board President reaffirming the district’s commitment to basic principles.
One of the points Professor Chin and I discussed in last week’s podcast (link) was courts and legislatures decision not to prohibit education for the children of undocumented immigrants and there is a basic rationale for that – if you have large numbers of people living in the country anyway, you probably don’t want them uneducated – as that would lead to all sorts of collateral consequences and costs.
Thanks, Don – I wasn’t aware of that (and didn’t even remember the 1994 vote).
My comment is actually directed at school districts; not immigrants themselves.
The more I see/learn, the more I realize that there are corrupt (U.S.) reasons that illegal immigration has been encouraged.
“a new identity-based harm protocol related to vandalism, arson and break-ins”
Say what now?
” . . . experience harm through dehumanizing words, behaviors, writings and symbols that come in many forms, including antisemitism, Islamophobia, sexism, anti-Arab, anti-Asian, anti-immigrant, ableism, anti-LBGTQIA+ and more.”
How about speaking in an alien (as in from outer space) language when discussing school policies (see first quotation).
And I believe you forgot donaldtrumpaphobia in the above list 😐