Darn it, our kids will be missing out on the cultural enrichment of mixing with Norwegians.

'Living in fear': Multilingual student enrollment drops in CT schools amid Trump immigration crackdown

It’s a quiet kind of shift — showing up in empty desks, names uncalled and school doors that some students no longer walk through.

Amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, community leaders say the dread of deportation has turned the trip to school into a risk some families won’t take, leaving fewer multilingual students in Connecticut’s classrooms.

Statewide data from this school year encapsulates that same story, as multilingual — or non-native English speaker — student enrollment in Connecticut public schools saw the biggest single-year plunge in at least 20 years. 

Advocates who work with Connecticut’s multilingual students and immigrant families say this drop reflects what they are hearing on the ground in their communities every day: Parents have been choosing between sending their children to school, keeping them home and fleeing altogether. Statewide data does not track the reasons for the decline.

The multilingual student population in the state has been steadily growing over the years and is still much greater than it was a few years ago. However, there were 2,148 fewer multilingual learner students enrolled this school year compared to the last one, according to statewide enrollment data.

A multilingual learner, also referred to as an English learner, is a student between the ages of 3 and 21 who is not a native English speaker and is not yet proficient enough in English to participate equally in the regular school program. Multilingual learners include recent immigrants to the country, children born in the U.S. who speak a language other than English at home and any student in the process of acquiring English proficiency.