News & Events
McGraw Prize Winner Debra Duardo on Supporting Immigrant Students
McGraw Prize winners’ broader impact continues long after the awards ceremony. Debra Duardo, a 2023 winner and the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools, is known for her whole-child, whole-family approach. She oversees the nation’s most populous and diverse regional education agency, and has continued to dedicate herself to breaking down barriers.
In March, Duardo appeared on a panel at SXSW Edu to discuss ways that educators can support immigrant students and families in Los Angeles. She spoke with us about fear as a barrier to learning, the importance of ensuring school safety, and other takeaways from her recent panel appearance.
Were there any big ideas or specific suggestions that emerged from the SXSW Edu session?
Debra Duardo: It was really grounded with a sense of urgency around how we can best support our students and families and communities. It was focused on the impact that this is having on children and families, rather than on politics.
Was there a key takeaway?
DD: The key takeaway was that fear is one of the biggest barriers to learning right now, and not just for our undocumented students. It’s showing up in student engagement and attendance and their overall well-being. Students feel a lot of anxiety and fear about what could possibly happen, if they themselves were deported or if someone in their family or community was deported.
Regardless of their immigration status, students and teachers are experiencing anxiety watching what’s happening to their friends and the people they care about in the community.
Do you have any guidance or practical resources to share with other educators who are concerned about protecting immigrant students?
DD: It is so important to have policies in place that prepare the community and to ensure that schools are safe places—not just physically safe, but emotionally and psychologically safe. Policy isn’t enough. It has to be paired with action. That includes consistent communication about how we care about the community and staff training so the staff understands procedures.
We need to remind people that school safety isn’t just physical safety, but it’s emotional safety. We need to make sure that students feel a sense of belonging.
Do you think there are some broad misconceptions surrounding this issue?
DD: There's a lot of misconceptions about immigrant students and communities, including the idea that immigration enforcement is only engaging with people who have committed crimes, and that’s not true. There's also this belief that immigrant families are all newly arrived, where many of the immigrant families we are talking about have been rooted in the community for decades.
A lot of times people overlook the strength and resilience and the contributions of immigrant families. It’s important to share positive messaging about the tenacity, the hard work, the contributions that are made by immigrants and how having diversity in our community and our schools strengthens us.
Were there any hopeful notes to the discussion?
DD: We talked about the importance of partnerships with community nonprofits and other organizations, that no single agency can do this work alone, and that we really need to share best practices and learn from one another about what works. We’re staying focused on what we can do and working together to change the narrative.
