Education Week - June 8, 2016 - 13

Some Early Border-Crossers Ready for Graduation in U.S.
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that they cannot legally hold jobs or
qualify for in-state tuition at many
state colleges. Some are still mastering English and will need tutoring
after graduation.
Those who have made it across
the line are earning plaudits from
counselors who saw them through
their adjustment period.
"It speaks to their tenacity and
their resilience and their ability to
confront the barriers in their lives,"
said Federico Rios, the program director of elementary sites and immigrant services at Communities in
Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

The number of unaccompanied
minors entering the United States
surged in fiscal year 2014, when
more than 102,000 children were
apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico
border, according to the Migration
Policy Institute. While the surge
lessened in 2015, the number of
cases appears to be climbing again.
A recent Pew Research Center
analysis of U.S. Customs and Border
Protection data found nearly 28,000
apprehensions of unaccompanied
minors in the first six months of fiscal 2016-higher than in the first
six months of fiscal 2015, when
more than 15,600 such apprehensions were made. In 2014, the height
of the unaccompanied-migrant crisis, the agency made just under
28,600 similar apprehensions.
The majority of those who made
the crossing were boys.
Some children who reunited with
family members or found sponsors
had difficulty enrolling in school,
even though districts are required
by law to enroll children regardless
of their immigration status. Reuniting with parents and family members with whom they had little or no
prior relationships was a challenge
for some. Access to stable housing
and transportation were major barriers for others, Chapman said.
While districts, such as Montgomery County, Md., were lauded for
helping to smooth the transition for
unaccompanied minor students-including recruiting bilingual volunteers-some made the road difficult
for the newcomers. Districts themselves were under tremendous financial pressures to address the needs of
students whose education had been
interrupted and, in many cases, who
were several grades behind.
The Associated Press reported last
month that in at least 35 districts
in 14 states, it found that hundreds
of undocumented minors from Central America had been "discouraged"
from enrolling in schools or placed
in separate educational settings,
such as adult education programs.
The Southern Poverty Law Center
recently sued the superintendent
and school board of Collier County
in Florida on behalf of Englishlanguage learners, including some
unaccompanied minors. The civil
rights organization claims that the
district excluded recently arrived
students from enrolling in high

Chris Keane for Education Week

Enrollment Barriers

Kenia, who came to the United States from Honduras in 2012, participates in a graduation award ceremony at her Charlotte, N.C., high school.

school and then placed them in a
noncredit English-language adult
program for which they also had to
pay a fee.
"These children do have rights
to enroll in schools and to get access to language programs and
to be treated as equal as all other
students and not experience discrimination based on their national
origin," said Jennifer Coco, a senior
staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, who added that
many districts still do not have
meaningful plans on how to accommodate unaccompanied minors and
address their unique needs.
Coco said it is important that
state education departments set a
tone for their local school districts
that says, "we are going to be welcoming to these students. We recognize that it's going to be a shift for
some schools, as well as a financial
obstacle that we need to figure out;
but let's plan for it because we have
to. It's not going to go away."
In fiscal 2014, 34 percent of unaccompanied minors came from
Honduras, according to the federal
Office of Refugee Resettlement. By
2015, 45 percent of those children
originated in Guatemala, followed
by El Salvador, and then Honduras.
The majority of those children were
placed with relatives and family
members in communities with large
Central American populations, including in California, Florida, New
York, and Texas.
For Katherine, the journey began
on an early November morning
in fall 2013. Then 15, she left her
mother, father, brother, and sister in
the town of Goascorán, for the weeklong trip that would eventually take
her to an uncle she had never met

in Charlotte. Her parents feared she
would be kidnapped if she stayed in
the country, she said.
She left with two younger male
cousins and someone the family had
paid about $21,000 for all three, she
said. The directions to the children
were clear: Do not talk to strangers
and do not separate from each other.
By taking the bus, walking, and
running when necessary, the group
made their way through Mexico
to the Texas border, she said. The
group was separated briefly at the
U.S.-Mexico border when Katherine
was unable to pull herself over the
fence separating the two countries.
The boys-more muscular than
she-were able to do so on the first
try. She had to spend a night without them on the Mexican side before
catching up with them the next day,
she said. The group, she said, was
never stopped by immigration officials on the journey.
In 2014, she enrolled in school in
Charlotte, nervous and concerned
about her limited English, which extended to offering and responding to
greetings and knowing how to count
in English.
Her first week at a U.S. high
school was memorable, but not all
for good reasons, she said. Another
student approached her, told her
she did not like her because she was
Hispanic, and punched her, she said.
(Katherine said the girl was suspended.) She was also very aware of
the differences in the two school systems. She wore uniforms in Honduras, but that was not a requirement
in Charlotte, and Chromebooks replaced paper and pencil, she said.
Kenia, who is from the town of La
Entrada, in Copán, Honduras, was
14 when she left in October 2012 for

her 17-day trip. Her parents, who
left Honduras when she was about 8
years old, lived in Charlotte. Fearful
that she might be married off as a
teenager, they made arrangements
to get her out of the country. (Her
brothers followed a year later.)
She was accompanied by three
other people, including an uncle
and aunt. The trip remains a blur,
she said, but she remembers being
cold and often hungry. When she
reunited with her parents, she felt
at peace, but at the same time, the
reunion seemed "strange" to her because of the long separation.

Difficult Adjustment
It took a while to get used to
Charlotte. Like Katherine, she had
a rudimentary acquaintance with
English: She could say her name,
count, and make simple requests.
"It was hard, it was difficult,"
Kenia said, recalling that she felt
lost. Another student helped her
translate and get through the first
few days, she said.
Communities in Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg serves about 350
unaccompanied students like Kenia
and Katherine, Rios said. Program
participation is voluntary, but the
group helps students navigate the
system, including finding housing
and school supplies, connecting with
legal services, providing bilingual
tutoring and mentoring, and getting dental screenings. One North
Carolina site coordinator started
an after-school program that offers
homework help, advice on confronting life challenges, and a chance to
play soccer-"the kinds of normal
things you would want any child
to have at the end of the day," said

Molly Shaw, the executive director
of Communities in Schools of Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
Site coordinators also ensure that
students have a trusted adult they
can lean on, she said.
"These are youths whose families
are so fearful for the lives of their
own children that they are taking the
risk to send them, unaccompanied,
across the border for a safer future,"
Shaw said. "They are coming here to
escape violence and trauma, and once
they are here, it's really up to us to
show them the importance of education and to wrap them in the services
they need, so that they can continue
their education, so that we can help
them onto the best trajectory for
them, while keeping them safe."
With graduation approaching,
Katherine and Kenia both have
post-high-school plans. They both
know that achieving them will be
difficult given that they are still
undocumented and are working to
improve their English.
Katherine wants to study cosmetology, but she would also have trouble coming up with the $20,000 or
so it would take, she said. Kenia has
always wanted to work in a hospital,
possibly as a pediatrician, she said.
Both students will spend the
summer taking intensive English
classes that Communities in Schools
is arranging. They are proud of what
they have accomplished and are optimistic about the future.
"I made a promise to my parents
that I was going to graduate from
high school," said Katherine, who
tries to speak to her parents daily.
"And that's what I am doing."
For her part, Kenia is undeterred.
"Anything can happen," she said.
"Anything is possible."

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Education Week - June 8, 2016

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