Winthrop Schools Advance Policy on ICE Encounters

Other Committee · Meeting of September 28, 2026

Winthrop schools move to adopt a state-mandated policy on handling ICE and other civil law enforcement at school buildings. The Policy Subcommittee reached consensus to recommend the policy, built on Massachusetts Association of School Committees model language, for full School Committee approval, satisfying a Protect Act requirement with a September 1 state deadline. The superintendent described an existing protocol, developed with the Winthrop Police Department roughly two to three years ago, under which the chief notifies the superintendent before any civil enforcement contact with a school, calling an "MS-13 gang member in your school" an example of the kind of imminent danger that would override the notify-first approach.

Members asked for an appendix defining "school grounds" and "operating hours" and for an annual police-school review meeting to be added to the internal procedures, which will not be posted publicly alongside the policy itself. The subcommittee closed by voting to return the item to the full School Committee.

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Source: the Other Committee meeting of September 28, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.