DC students head back to school amid Trump's law enforcement surge

Despite more than 2,000 National Guard troops authorized by President Donald Trump's crackdown on crime, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said students in the nation's capital will not be aided by their presence as children return to school this week.

"We don't need federal agencies to help get kids to school," Bowser told ABC News. "We will take care of getting our kids to school."

The school year begins as Bowser and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) tout proficiency rates in English language arts/literacy (ELA) and math are the highest since prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ELA proficiency rate is the highest on record.

Hundreds of thousands of students are returning to the classroom across major metropolitan school districts this week.

Some 100,000 students return to D.C. schools on Monday amid the Trump administration's surge of law enforcement into Washington. Student safety is always a top issue for education leaders during back-to-school season. However, the presence of troops in Washington is raising new questions as a military-style vehicle was involved in an accident last week and troops will be gathering throughout the city at Metro rail stations, which is how many students get to school.

Bowser said D.C.'s existing transportation strategies include using the district's safe passage program with local law enforcement lining the streets. If families feel unsafe, the district offers a safe connect program, which connects students with a ride to school.

Bowser believes using the Guard as law enforcement is unnecessary and said the crime rate had decreased "precipitously" before Trump's surge.

"I think calling men and women from their homes and their jobs and their families -- they have to be used on, you know, on mission-specific items that benefit the nation," Bowser said, adding, "I don't think we have an armed militia in the nation's capital."

But Washington's Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith acknowledged that the federal agents spread throughout the city have made improvements to safety.

"Hearing from the officers on the street, some of them have found it to be very helpful, some people in the community have found it to be very helpful," Smith said.

In Philadelphia, where nearly 200,000 students are returning to schools this week, School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Tony Watlington argued crime and shootings have also decreased there. He noted that the nation's eighth-largest school district is investing in "safety zones" by contracting with the Philadelphia Police Department to provide additional patrols in areas that have an uptick in violence.

"We've invested more resources and safe paths programs where we contract with community organizations to oversee children as they traverse, as they make their way to school, to ensure their safety," Watlington told ABC News. In addition, Philadelphia is hiring more school safety officers for the school district staff, Watlington said.Watlington said he is fostering a welcoming environment in the City of Brotherly Love, which he said is creating a culture where young people feel connected, seen, and heard.

"We have to build relationships," Watlington said.

"We're focusing on that heavily in the school district, because when kids who feel connected, their social and emotional mental health and wellness are attended to, and they have relationships with each other and with adults, when they see something, they're more likely to say something and so those are a number of things that we're doing in our strategic plan to provide for the safety and well being of our young people and our staffs," he said.

But Watlington and Philadelphia parents and families do have anxiety about significant cuts to its public transit system, SEPTA.

"We just can't go and get more yellow school buses and put them on the street in Philadelphia," Watlington said. "We rely on public transit, and it is unfortunate, and it's no fault of our children that they'll have some impacts to their transportation."

Still, Bowser and education officials in both D.C. and Philadelphia agree safety is the top priority for their respective cities. At Bowser's back-to-school pep rally earlier this month, she stressed a community response is needed to ensure a successful first day back.

Bowser urged D.C. residents to clap, cheer, and celebrate the city's students all week.

"Our children deserve and will get a joyful start to their school year," Bowser said, adding, "All the adults in our buildings, all of the people in our government are focused on making sure that that happens."

"We want them to have a great school year, and we're all going to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them."