Education Week reports on the Third World coming to your local government school:
In some communities, the enrollment of undocumented students has been constant this school year. That's what Nicole Mitchell, the coordinator for a center that assists families with enrollment, health needs, and legal services in Los Angeles Unified, has seen. "We're enrolling kids every day," she said.
But steady numbers of arrivals aren't just happening in large districts where you'd expect them. In the small, upscale resort town of Jackson, Wyo., Eastman said his dual-language school went from two migrant students to 14 in just five months. With that growth, and the state's class-size rules, he had to add the equivalent of a new classroom midyear and the district reassigned staff from other schools to help.
"It's definitely been a pretty significant strain on our system, one that we welcome, but it's definitely been a strain," Eastman said.
As migrant students flow into schools throughout the academic year, there are no funds that follow to help pay for their education. Schools must adjust with the budgets they have.
There's more:
There are cultural gaps and assumptions about migrant children that can lead to misunderstandings and upsetting encounters.
In one case an advocate told me about, a migrant student came to school wearing an El Salvador soccer jersey. The school's police officer saw the shirt and questioned the boy about possible gang connections. Upset, the student insisted he was wearing the jersey because he likes soccer and is from El Salvador.
There's even more:
In the Prince George's County district, where more than 5,000 migrant children have enrolled since 2014, officials are making investments in training for all staff. There are English-learner coaches for mainstream teachers, cultural sensitivity training for bus drivers, and basic Spanish-language training is offered for all school employees. And the district's roughly 100 interpreters have undergone specialty training in vocabulary associated with emotional and sexual abuse.
Given the scale of the district's migrant student population, professional development has been across the system.
That's essential, said Patricia Chiancone, an international student specialist in the 133,000-student Prince George's district, to avoid a situation where having trained staff is "hit or miss depending on what school you enroll in." She also said it sends a strong message that "everyone has a stake in supporting these children."
Inequality sure is expensive for federal taxpayers.
