Several California Public School Students Still Trapped in Afghanistan | WUGA

Updated September 1, 2021, 3:14 p.m. ET

United States put an end to its mass evacuations outside Kabul, Afghanistan, before the deadline set by President Biden of August 31, but up to 27 Californian public school students remain in Afghanistan.

The students, whose grades range from elementary to high school, come from 19 families in the San Juan Unified School District in Sacramento. Most students, depending on the school district, have family members with them.

The Sacramento area is home to one of the largest Afghan-American communities in the United States. It is not clear exactly how these students will be able to return to the United States in an Afghanistan now controlled by the Taliban.

“These numbers continue to change rapidly. We believe some of these families may be in transit out of Afghanistan, as we have not been able to reach many in the past few days,” said Raj Rai, communications director for the school district. . NPR said in a statement.

“We are ready to support these students and families in any way we can,” Rai said, adding that the district was working with officials from state and congressional offices.

One of the offices of Congress is that of Representative Ami Bera, a Democrat who represents the district. Bera’s office told NPR it had been in contact with the school district and had “urgently reported” the situation with the State Department and the Department of Defense.

“We are asking the DoD and the State Department for an update,” Travis Horne, Bera’s communications director, said in an email to NPR.