Island school officials have updated a resolution designed to protect students and their families, with new language stating explicitly that federal agents are not welcome on public school property. 

The all-Island district approved amendments to its Safe Schools resolution last month, and superintendent Richard Smith gave a presentation on the policies at the regional high school committee meeting Monday night.

“The school committee believes that this safe and caring learning environment would be threatened by the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees or agents on district property for the purpose of obtaining information about students and families or for the purpose of removing or detaining students or their families,” the resolution reads.

Students and parents have been expressing concerns about the possibility of immigration enforcement activities, said Mr. Smith, who told the high school committee that his office is developing additional policies in case of students whose parents or caregivers have been taken into custody.

“I want to make sure that everybody knows . . . that our school committee and our school administration and staff are driven by our values, and the very core work of what we do is take care of all children,” he said.

The resolution calls for strict enforcement of the existing policies that already protect students and their families.

“These policies include, but are not limited to a statement of civil rights policy, harassment policy, anti-bias policy, bullying policy, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) notification and homeless students’ enrollment rights and services,” it reads.

The all-Island school committee first adopted the Safe Schools resolution in 2017.

“It’s a proclamation by our school committee and our administration to support all children,” Mr. Smith said.

The resolution is posted, in English and Brazilian Portuguese, on the school system website at mvyps.org/policy. It covers the high school, the five town schools and the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School.

“Each school has a plan in place, should there be any kind of . . . request for a student information or parent information for any of our students,” Mr. Smith said.

The Safe Schools resolution also includes a commitment to improving equity, despite the loss of the school system’s consulting nonprofit, Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium. School officials worked with the consortium to conduct an equity study, which began in August 2023 and included focus groups with students in grades seven through 12.

The study found wide-ranging school equity policies that take into account differing race, language and socioeconomic conditions. Those policies were determined to be vague and limited, as in the case of gender identity and expression, such as restroom access for transgender students and staff.

The Maryland-based group last month was cut off for funding by the federal government, which also banned it from continuing work on the Vineyard under a previous grant, Mr. Smith said.

But the school district has worked with the nonprofit for long enough to continue on its own, he said.

“People might get hung up on the word ‘equity.’ Equity is a strong word that just means access for everybody,” he told the all-Island school committee at its Feb. 20 meeting.