Educators across the New Orleans region are wrestling with an urgent question: what to do about students who are staying home during the immigration crackdown that has some parents too scared to send their kids to school.

Student attendance plummeted after U.S. Border Patrol agents launched their high-profile operation, dubbed "Catahoula Crunch," on Dec. 3. In Jefferson Parish, the epicenter of the initial burst of enforcement activity, about 12% of students missed school the following day — an increase of 3,500 absent students compared to the same day last year.

Though the surge in absences eased this week, school leaders are still trying to figure out how to respond. They have debated whether to excuse the absences and allow students to do virtual learning, while sometimes getting co

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