By the California State PTA Legislation Advocacy Team

Since winter 2025, families across California have been living with a difficult and often frightening reality: immigration enforcement activity near schools and in communities has not let up. The news cycle moves on, but at California State PTA, we hear what’s actually happening directly from our members –  the phone calls, the emails, the conversations at school board meetings. Parents are afraid to send their kids to school. Families are unsure of their rights. Local PTA leaders are wondering what they can do.

If you’re one of those leaders wondering where you fit in, this is for you. Because PTA has something no social media campaign, cable news segment, or protest sign can replicate: trust, built over time, in every community we serve.

We’re Not Just Another Voice in the Room
When a local PTA leader walks into a meeting with a school principal, a city council member, or into a state legislator’s district office, they don’t arrive as an individual parent with an opinion. They arrive as an official representative of their unit, council, or district — carrying the weight of the families who elected them and the credibility of an organization with decades as a trusted child advocate.

Of course, PTA advocacy looks different from what individuals do — and that’s the point. When someone posts on social media or calls into a radio show, they’re speaking for themselves. That matters. But it’s a different kind of voice than what you bring as a PTA leader. Our role is supplemental and distinct: we work alongside individual advocates, building institutional relationships and policy infrastructure that no individual voice can create alone. That’s the quiet power — the steady presence that keeps showing up long after the news cycle moves on.

PTA Members Are Trusted Communicators
PTA’s members are parents, grandparents, students, educators, and community members from every background and walk of life — and that diversity is exactly what makes local leaders so credible. When you speak up as a PTA leader, you aren’t just sharing a personal view. You’re standing in for the families around you who may not know how to navigate these systems, or who may not feel safe doing so themselves. That representative role — rooted in community, accountable to a membership — is something no individual advocate can imitate.

Understanding Our Role and Its Limits
When it comes to immigration enforcement near schools, it’s important to be clear about what PTA members are and what we are not. PTA members are not school district employees or representatives, and we cannot interact directly with federal immigration agents on behalf of a school or district. That is a critical distinction, both legally and practically.

Our role is to inform, advocate, and connect families with the right resources — legal aid organizations, district communications, and community support networks. We help families understand their rights, know what protections exist for students, and know where to turn when they have questions or concerns. That is meaningful, essential work, and it is squarely within PTA’s mission.

When families feel frightened or uncertain about what immigration enforcement near their school means for their child, having a trusted PTA leader say, “I know who can help you, and here’s how to reach them” matters enormously. That’s not a small thing. That is exactly what advocacy looks like from the inside out.

Quiet Doesn’t Mean Weak
PTA advocacy doesn’t always look like a rally or a viral moment. Often, it looks like a local PTA president meeting with her school principal to review the district’s safe schools policy. It looks like a PTA leader calling a state legislator’s office to express support for a bill that would protect students. It looks like a parent sharing a resource sheet at a coffee morning or a back-to-school night.

These moments don’t make headlines — but they move policy. They build the relationships that open doors. They create the kind of sustained, trusted presence that makes legislators and administrators listen when it counts most.

What You Can Do Right Now
As a local PTA leader, you are already doing more than you may realize. Here are a few ways to continue that work with confidence:

• Connect families with resources. California State PTA’s Safe Schools page is a one-stop hub: it includes our full guidance document, multilingual resources, and the recording of Public Counsel attorney Sharon Cartagena’s LegCon26 presentation — “Creating a Family Plan: What Immigrant Parents and Their Supporters Need to Know.” This video is especially valuable to share widely. Public Counsel also offers free Know Your Rights presentations for community groups; contact them at publiccounsel.org/kyr-immigration-resources.
• Check in with your local schools — California State PTA’s Advice: Immigration Enforcement Near Schools recommends that schools publicly post CDE guidance materials. Visit your school’s website or front office to confirm these materials are visible and accessible to families — and if they’re not, that’s a conversation worth having with your principal. 
• ​​Know the law — and hold school leaders accountable to it. California State PTA co-sponsored Senate Bill 98, the SAFE Act, which was signed into law in September 2025. It requires all LEAs — school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools — to update their Comprehensive School Safety Plans to include procedures for notifying the school community when federal immigration enforcement is confirmed on a school site. The deadline for that update was March 1, 2026. Ask your school or district whether their Safety Plan has been updated. If it hasn’t, that’s exactly the kind of accountability conversation PTA leaders are positioned to have.
• Advocate — and inspire others to do the same. Civic engagement is at the heart of what PTA stands for, and as a local leader, you model it for your entire community. Vote. Attend school board meetings. Respond to legislative calls to action. Contact your elected officials and let them know that keeping schools safe and welcoming for every child is a priority in your community. Then encourage your members to do the same. Every parent, caregiver, and student who shows up, signs a letter, or makes a phone call amplifies the work you’re already doing.

California’s 6 million public school students are fortunate to have advocates like you in their corner. The work you do every day — showing up, speaking up, and staying connected — is the foundation of everything PTA stands for.

Keep going. The quiet work matters most — today, tomorrow, together.

By the California State PTA Legislative Advocacy Team

California State PTA has voted to sponsor California state Assembly Bill 2651, authored by Assembly Member Mia Bonta. The bill, known as the Informed Parents, Healthy Schools Act, would help ensure families receive timely information about vaccination rates in their children’s schools. Here’s what PTA members should know.

What Does AB 2651 Do?
AB 2651 requires the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to establish immunization rate thresholds needed to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. If vaccination levels at a school fall below those thresholds, CDPH would notify the school, and the school would then notify parents or guardians of enrolled students. The bill is designed to provide parents with clear, school-specific information about vaccination coverage so they can make informed decisions about their children’s health and safety.

Why Is This Needed?
Vaccination programs are widely recognized as one of the most effective public health tools for preventing disease and protecting communities. Research estimates that vaccines have saved more than 154 million lives globally since 1974, the majority of them young children.

Schools are environments where communicable diseases can spread quickly, making high vaccination rates especially important. Maintaining these rates helps support herd immunity, which protects not only vaccinated individuals but also those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.

In recent years, vaccination coverage among kindergarten students has declined below levels needed to maintain herd immunity in many areas. At the same time, currently available data often reports immunization rates only at the county level, which can mask significant differences between individual schools or communities.

AB 2651 addresses this information gap by ensuring parents are notified when immunization rates at their child’s school fall below the thresholds recommended to achieve herd immunity.

Why Is California State PTA Supporting This Bill?
California State PTA’s support for AB 2651 is grounded in our long-standing commitment to protecting the health and safety of children and families.

In our Vaccinations position statement, California State PTA affirms that vaccinations are proven deterrents to diseases that historically have impacted large numbers of children.  Protecting children through immunization also protects entire communities, including medically vulnerable individuals who cannot be vaccinated.

California State PTA has also long supported public education and awareness around immunizations. In the resolution Immunization Awareness and Educational Programs, convention delegates called on PTA to work with public health agencies and local PTA units to promote awareness of the importance of immunization and to alert parents to the potential dangers of disease outbreaks when vaccination levels fall.

AB 2651 supports these goals by improving transparency around school vaccination rates and ensuring that parents receive timely information when immunization levels fall below the levels needed to prevent the spread of disease. By providing families with school-specific information, the bill helps communities respond quickly and helps protect the health of all children.

What Can PTA Members Do?
PTA members can help raise awareness about AB 2651 by sharing information with their local PTA units, councils, and school communities.

Members can also learn more by reviewing the bill language and following advocacy updates from California State PTA. Staying informed and engaged helps ensure that the voices of families are heard in decisions that affect the health and well-being of California’s children. If you are not already subscribed, be sure to join our mailing list today and select “Advocacy & Legislation” to ensure you receive all the latest updates.