LYNN, Mass. — The Lynn School Committee on Thursday adopted a policy barring federal immigration agents from schools without a judicial warrant, after district staff described students staying home and coming to school with nowhere to go after their parents were detained.

The committee approved the policy without opposition on a roll-call vote, with one member absent, according to a recording of the meeting. Mayor Jared Nicholson, who sits on the committee, voted yes.

The policy implements the PROTECT Act, which Gov. Maura Healey signed Aug. 5. The law prohibits most civil arrests, including immigration arrests, in schools, hospitals, child care centers and courthouses without a judicial warrant or court order, according to the state. It also requires school committees to adopt policies based on a state model.

"Our staff have seen fear of ICE keep parents away from school activities and keep our students home," the district's new director of family and community engagement told the committee.

The director said that at the height of enforcement activity last year, "staff reported students coming to school with nowhere to go because a parent, or sadly, both parents, had been picked up." The director said multiple staff members had called about similar situations in the hours before the meeting.

The director described a recent youth listening session at a middle school where a student said he was afraid of kidnappers. When asked privately what he meant, the student answered, "the kidnappers that take our parents," the director said.

Warrants, records and notice to families

The policy is the state's model, the district's compliance officer said. Procedures to follow it will name administrators as points of contact, document any interactions with immigration agents on school grounds, tell families when someone asks for their child's records, and review any judicial warrants presented.

The compliance officer said the district already has some of those procedures in place, including staff training on the difference between federal agents and local police and a resource page for families.

In 2017, the committee adopted resolutions declaring Lynn "a safe and welcoming sanctuary for all students," the compliance officer said. "It's fair to say either that great minds think alike or that at the state level, the Protect Act borrowed largely from Lynn's resolutions."

Healey has called the PROTECT Act "the strongest law in the country to protect people from ICE."