School and educator responses to the immigration policy environment may depend on what educators know about who is in their school community. This paper examines whether and how educators in a rural Midwestern community recognize undocumented and mixed-legal status students in their school community. We utilize concepts from recognition theory to understand the mechanisms that may have facilitated or hindered an elementary school principal and two teams of 3rd and 4th grade teachers' recognition. The findings present a picture of a school in the nascent stages of recognizing how the sociopolitical climate and enforcement of immigration law powerfully impact children and families.