By Dr. César Morales, Ventura County Superintendent of Schools
As the 2025–2026 school year gets underway, I want to extend a heartfelt welcome to every student and family in Ventura County. This is an exciting time for students to reunite with friends, meet new teachers, and pursue fresh opportunities for growth and learning. But for many families, this year begins not only with hope, but with anxiety and fear.
Ventura County is seeing firsthand the consequences of intensified immigration enforcement. In some heartbreaking cases, children have been left without parents who were detained during the school day, leaving staff scrambling to find someone to care for them. I urge all families who could be affected by immigration enforcement to take a critical step now: designate a trusted caregiver and share that information with your child’s school. This will allow us to act quickly and compassionately in the event of an emergency.
Our schools will never ask about immigration status or share student information with immigration authorities without a valid court order. Immigration agents are not permitted on our campuses without a judicial warrant. You can learn more about the educational rights of immigrant students and find resources for families and educators at www.vcoe.org/rights.
In this time of anxiety, the Ventura County Neighbors Support Fund offers a way for all of us to help. Intended to support families in crisis, this fund provides food, housing, medical care, and other basic necessities through trusted local organizations. The fund was created by the Ventura County Community Foundation and a coalition of local partners. If you’re looking for a meaningful way to support your neighbors, I encourage you to donate at www.vccf.org/neighbors.
Recent federal actions have also placed essential education funding in jeopardy. Earlier this summer, billions of dollars, including nearly $1 billion for California, were suddenly frozen by the federal government. This threatened vital services such as Head Start, school lunches, migrant education, and after-school programs. Thanks to an outpouring of support from educators, lawmakers, and families, the funds were restored, but the damage from the delay was real, and the threat of future cuts remains.
I’m also deeply concerned by the federal government’s campaign to dismantle efforts that make schools welcoming and inclusive places where all students can thrive. By politicizing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, they are threatening programs that recognize the unique challenges and varied backgrounds that students bring to our classrooms. The reality is that children facing poverty or homelessness, students who have disabilities, are in foster care, or are part of the LGBTQ community often need a higher level of support. I am proud that educators in Ventura County and at the state level remain committed to serving these students to the best of our abilities. At the Ventura County Office of Education, our approach is rooted in Compassionate Systems, a framework that helps educators respond to challenges with empathy and insight. These practices let us better navigate conflict and understand the underlying causes of student behavior to identify supports that truly make a difference.
Amid the current challenges, we’re fortunate to live in a state that is firmly committed to public education. The new state budget includes additional money for early literacy instruction, after-school programs and teacher recruitment. It also funds the final stage in the rollout of transitional kindergarten, an optional grade level that is available to all of the state’s four-year-olds beginning this fall. Here at VCOE, we are expanding civic learning opportunities to help students find a voice in their communities. And we’re excited to be opening a new welding testing center in Camarillo that will be the first in our region accredited by the American Welding Society.
Our message to all families is simple: We are ready for you. We welcome you. We stand with you. Our staff are trained to protect your children and connect your family to critical resources. Thanks to the leadership of school districts throughout Ventura County, we are leading the state in the creation of student wellness centers, which now provide on-campus mental health support and referrals at more than one hundred local schools.
Even in these uncertain times, I have no doubt that the Ventura County family will rise to meet the challenges we now face – just as we’ve done before during devastating wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic. With the collective strength of our dedicated educators, families, local government partners, nonprofit agencies, and business community, we will make this a school year where all students know they are welcome, supported and safe.