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The 8-year-old girl is an immigrant student whose families frequently move in search of seasonal work. However, for five weeks this summer, she has found stability, fun and academic upbringing in programs aimed at children like her, including visiting Lazo twice a week.
However, like Axolotl, the salamander she studied, the program is extremely at risk. Immigrant students may have families living in the country illegally – or may lack legal status in their own right, so the Trump administration wants to end federal funds for it by saying the program is wasting money and violating his policy directives.
And amid concerns about the immigration enforcement attack, the more immediate blow to the programme saw fewer children go to the zoo and few parents attended simultaneous education workshops on how to support their children’s learning.
The federally funded zoo experience, a small program within the Los Angeles Unified School District, part of a summer school reaching tens of thousands of students, provides a window that provides a way for Trump administration policies to filter into California’s complex educational missions and classrooms that affect some of the state’s most vulnerable children.
From transitional kindergarten to high school, there are 1,700 students defined as the immigrants in the country’s second-largest school system with around 400,000 students.
Parents of these students usually work in the agriculture and dairy industries and move with the seasons. Children sometimes move with their parents. Sometimes they fall behind along with relatives and other home bases in the Los Angeles area. Their parents are usually limited in education and often have limited English skills.
The federal government provides a unified LA of approximately $1.4 million for additional support to immigrant students throughout the school year. This is part of approximately $400 million in federal immigration education grants available nationwide. Annual distributions of the funds were to begin on July 1, but the Trump administration has curtailed it despite being approved by Congress earlier this year.
Nationally, withheld funding for this variety of educational programs exceeded an estimated $6 billion, but was released last week. Last week, California joined other states and sued the Trump administration to hold back money. Many of them want to be eliminated entirely in future years, including funding for immigration education.
Those who praise federal cuts say state and local government should pay for these programs if they have value. Others believe that the federal government maintains an important role in helping children have special needs.
Without federal involvement, “some students are about to lose. Historically, it was a student of color, an immigrant student, a low-income student,” said Mera Lala, director of partnerships in Southern California and director of engagement at the advocacy group Edtrust West.
See La Unified’s efforts
RR – The third-grade rise, which the Times agreed to identify by her initials to protect her and her family’s privacy, has been part of the zoo program for the second year in a row.
“I was a bit excited because I had the same teacher. I really wanted the same teacher because she was kind and kind,” said RR, who has a glass and a dark ponytail.
The number of participants studying in the zoo program is relatively small. Because many families leave the area for summer work. A typical year involves 45 students, mostly in elementary schools.
However, this summer, LA Unification provided buses to take students to the zoo and take them to Malabal Elementary School in Boyle Heights, a home base in the classroom, but that number plunged to 25.
What happened is no mystery to Ruth Navarro, the lead teacher of the LA Unified program.
Worried about the immigrant attack, the four families asked if the district could welcome children from their homes. The district found a way to do this, but the family ultimately refused to participate, Navarro said.
“We wanted to go to their home to pick them up, but they didn’t want to let the kids out the door for fear of what would happen to them,” Navarro said.
Typically, the school system requires three buses to greet participating students. One of the buses was cancelled this year.
Students from the LAUSD Immigration Education Program are wearing Axolotl masks at the summer camp at the Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park on July 16, 2025.
Furthermore, virtually no one used the program for them that matched the time the children were in class, Navarro said. The initiative included topics such as social emotional learning and workshops on ways to improve reading comprehension for children. Navarro also advised on how to access support on immigration issues.
In response to the horror, parents were offered online simultaneous broadcasts for the workshop. Around 15 parents attended there, Navarro said. Los Angeles Unified has also expanded its online version of Malaval Elementary School classes. There, about 40 students participated to varying degrees.
However, online students missed the heart of the program. Seven trips to the zoo and in-person classroom interactions.
Students from the LAUSD Immigration Education Program (MEP) share poster boards, drawings and descriptions for Axolotl, a type of salamander, along with their parents at the Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park on July 16, 2025.
RR made the most of her summer learning and became an expert at Axolotl.
At first, I thought it was like a normal fish, but until I noticed my legs, I said, ‘Wait, the fish don’t have feet.'” she said.
RR, like other students, created her animal art projects and served as a docent for parents and visitors.
“They have gills that help them breathe underwater,” she explained, holding the microphone next to the tank, adding that axolotl can change the colour and hide it. “There’s one camouflage over there,” she said.
RR becomes Axolotl and I think it’s fun to breathe underwater. She has never been to the pool or the ocean.
Students are usually very shy at the beginning of the summer, said Coral Bareiro, Lazo’s Community Program Manager.
“They learn interpretive skills, which is amazing about their confidence and public speaking in the future,” Barreiro said. “They meet up with Zookeepers and basically, at the end, they mimic everything we did and make it their own.”
Students from the LAUSD Immigration Education Program share poster boards, drawings and descriptions for Axolotl, a type of salamander, along with their parents at a summer camp at the Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park.
Big Painting Discussion
LA Unified is currently continuing its immigration student program by using reserves designated for other purposes. During the school year, immigration programs pay services such as private tutoring and extended educational hours after school and Saturday.
Some argue that immigration programs, and many other examples of federal education spending, are not the responsibility of the federal government, including Neil P. McCrusky, director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, which was libertarian.
“The federal government does not have the constitutional authority to fund such programs, but it goes without saying that we have $37 trillion national debt,” said McCluskey, who had no position on the value of the effort. “If the government is trying to offer such a program, it should be funded state or locally.”
The Trump administration, which reflects this debate in its budget proposal next year, classifies immigration efforts as completely negative.
According to budget documents, “The program is extremely expensive” for each student. “The program has not been proven to be effective and encourages unqualified non-citizens to strip American students of taxpayer dollars.”
Critics of the administration’s approach say the federal government has been stepping in for a long time to help students who need it most — when the state doesn’t want to or can’t.
Without federal regulations and funding, state and local governments are “not being done correctly by all students,” said Lara of Edtrust West.
The pending cuts and withholding funds “will refuse opportunities for students. The state and local governments will have to make really tough decisions,” she said.
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