Unaccompanied immigrant children: Our responsibility, our challenge |
On Board Online • December 15, 2014
By Fred Langstaff
Area 12 Director
When a child who is not accompanied by a parent or legal guardian is apprehended by immigration authorities, the child is transferred to the care and custody of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Federal law requires that the government feed, shelter, and provide medical care for unaccompanied children until they are able to release them to safe settings with sponsors (usually family members) pending immigration proceedings. These sponsors live in many states.
Data from the ORR website indicates that, between October 2013 and September 2014, New York State received 5,955 such children, placing it second only to Texas in the number of unaccompanied children released to sponsors. A breakdown by county reveals that Nassau and Suffolk on Long Island have received 1,446 and 1,600 children, respectively, with a combined total that outnumbers even New York City. The surge in migrating children, primarily from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, is reportedly being driven by fear of gang violence and poverty in these countries.
While politicians point fingers and share political rhetoric about the cause of the influx and who or what is to blame for the recent surge, the educational community is tasked with providing a free and appropriate public education for these school-aged students when they arrive in our school districts. As has been the case throughout American history, the immigrants who are coming to this country are heading to locations where an enclave of previously arrived immigrants from the country of origin already exists. The majority of districts that are receiving these students on Long Island are high-needs districts where affordable housing exists.
The school districts involved already had large numbers of English language learners (ELLs). The influx of new students with a variety of needs poses new challenges.
For instance, regulations for English language learners require that students be assessed to determine their educational needs before placement. For districts that are most impacted by these numbers, freeing up key (e.g., Spanish-speaking) staff for the intake and assessment process can be a scheduling challenge
For some students and their families, the process of enrolling in a school district isn't just about translating the words, it is about translating the culture. They often don't know terms such as high school credits, Regents examinations, Common Core curriculum, not to mention the vocabulary that is tied to classes and curriculum.
Many of the latest wave of entrants are middle and high school-aged students who have had significant interruptions in their formal education (SIFE students). The law requires these students to attend school while awaiting their immigration proceedings. But students who are being spoken to in their native language but don't understand the material are often frustrated. It can lead to behavioral issues ranging from disengagement to noncompliance. None of the above even begins to address the social and emotional challenges that these young people bring with them as a result of the struggles that they have endured and the violence that they have seen prior to their arrival to this country.
To complicate the situation further, there are new revisions in the Commissioner's Regulations that pertain to English language learners (Part 154 of the Commissioner's Regulations). These regulations greatly increase the amount of intervention and services that students who are English language learners are entitled to. Staffing requirements, levels of student support, requisite teacher certifications, and professional development, as well as the assessment and monitoring of English language learners, is set to increase exponentially with the implementation of these revisions.
Education Law section 3204 and Part 154 contain standards for educational services provided to ELL students in New York State. In addition to major modifications in the definitions of these students, a greater impact is going to be seen in the modifications of a school district's responsibilities.
The law and regulations describe many steps that districts must complete within a timeframe. Multiple personnel are involved and communication must occur in the native language of the student/parent. There are program and planning requirements for each district, with increased mandates for access to bilingual education programs once a threshold for a certain percentage of students exists in a district (see special section in this issue of On Board).
Wait, there's more. Add to these mandates parental notification and information, annual individual meetings with school staff to review progress, and requirements for signed notifications from parents. In short, the requirements approximate those in place for students with disabilities.
Other hoops to jump through include new requirements for certifications on the part of the staff who are providing the coursework, caps on grade spans for instructional groupings, and additional support services for students who are not meeting specified levels of performance on the New York State English as a Second Language Assessment.
The revisions to regulations mandate a minimum percentage of professional development hours for staff that must be dedicated to language acquisition, including a focus on best practices for teaching strategies for English language learners.
Public schools are struggling to accommodate this surge of unexpected enrollees physically, as well. Not only do some districts require additional space, they need to quickly acquire additional staff to provide intensive instruction and support to these students.
The challenges to providing these students with what they need would be significant in any climate. But what our state and federal leaders need to recognize is that certain school districts are experiencing a perfect storm of a surge in numbers, new more intensive requirements for the education of ELLs on the horizon, and a climate of multiple years under a tax levy cap for school districts.
Aside from the fiscal dilemma, there is the question of how this high-needs and perhaps transient population will impact school district accountability measures. Will these students be counted against the requirement to test a certain percentage of each cohort? How will they be treated under the new obligations to serve English language learners?
As boards of education, we are charged with implementing Commissioners' Regulations as we provide a free appropriate public education to those students who reside within our school district boundaries. We will rise to the occasion and work together to meet the needs of this population as we are charged to do. But the challenges are large and the resources are minimal. This issue goes far beyond the schoolhouse doors or the boardroom. It is a community, state, and federal issue that needs to be addressed with all parties coming together to do their part.