Education Week - October 6, 2021 - 13

Here's How Schools Are Helping
Afghan Refugee Students
Some districts
are assisting with
evacuation efforts
By Ileana Najarro
When the school year began in August
for the Cajon Valley Union district
in California, some members of
the school community from Afghanistan
were missing.
Through local and international
phone calls, staff in the district tracked
down eight families who, after going to
visit relatives in Afghanistan, had been
unable to return to the United States
amid the chaos of military evacuations
and rising Taliban control, said Michael
Serban, director of the district's family
and community engagement office.
Like administrators in some other
districts, Serban's staff suddenly
found themselves contacting legislators
and government agencies to help
bring families back.
" We had no idea we were going to
be playing that role, " Serban said.
Assisting in international evacuations
is beyond the usual scope of
school district employees' work. Yet
educators who work with refugee
students and families often see their
roles extended in unexpected ways.
For many of these students, schools
become an integral support system for
helping them and their parents navigate
life in a new country.
The Biden administration has requested
funding from Congress to
help resettle 65,000 Afghans in the
United States by the end of September,
and 95,000 by September 2022,
according to the Associated Press.
As districts-and particularly those
in California, Maryland, Texas and
Virginia, which have long had large
numbers of Afghans resettle there-
prepare for new arrivals from that
country, experts say having systems in
place to welcome refugee students and
continuously support them will be key.
At the Cajon Valley district, seven
of the eight families stranded in Afghanistan
have returned, Serban
said. Efforts are ongoing to help the
remaining family.
" They're literally being chased by
the Taliban, " Serban said. " I mean,
they're moving from house to house. "
'A lot of these families are
fractured'
So far, there are nearly 40 students
from the San Juan Unified school
district in Carmichael, Calif., still in
Afghanistan with their families, said
Raj Rai, the district's director of communication.
She added that the district
continues to keep in touch with these
families, sharing information with local
legislators working to bring them back.
Ahmad Nimati, a school community
refugee specialist in the San Juan district,
said that in some of these cases,
one parent and some of the children are
stranded overseas while the remaining
family members are in California.
" A lot of these families are fractured, "
Rai said. " So it's also providing support
for those family members that remain
in Sacramento [County], and making
sure they have what they need. "
That more localized support and
contact is what refugee specialists are
used to.
While newly arrived families are
often first helped by resettlement
agencies, schools then quickly pick up
the work of helping families adjust to
their new homes and feel supported
going forward, said Cristina Burkhart,
an English-learner program specialist
at the San Juan district. That means
tending to students' academic needs,
but also doing things like providing
donated food, clothing, and wheelchairs
for students. The work also extends
to helping parents gain agency,
including teaching them things like
how to schedule doctors' appointments
and how the school grading
system works.
Individual school leaders also play a
role in assisting students and parents
in adjusting to a new home.
At Templeton Elementary School in
Riverdale, Md., principal Ebony Harris
ensures that Afghan students have
spaces where they can pray, and that
there are halal food options available.
" The brain does not even function
if it doesn't feel safe, secure, and I
would say loved, so we just want to
make sure that we're doing that for
them, " Harris said.
For Masuda Stanekzai, an Afghan
mother of a 5th grader at Templeton,
the halal food options are a detail she
appreciates for her child, as well as the
various skills her daughter has learned
in school.
" Kids learn how to help each other,
how to help their friends, how to be
organized, " she said.
The family arrived in the United
States in 2017, Stanekzai said. While
it was hard at first to adjust to a new
life, Stanekzai said her daughter is
now happy at school and wants to be
a scientist.
Teachers can ease the experience
for new students
Fostering a welcoming environment
for refugee students is something
teachers can do in the classroom
as well.
At Travis Heights elementary school
in Austin, Texas, Shayna Bright, a 2nd
grade English-as-a-second-language
teacher, keeps a journal where she jots
down Pashto and Dari words her Afghan
students teach her. So while they
learn English, she learns more of their
home languages.
" That buy-in with the children has
really made a big impact, " Bright said.
" They see that I care not just about
their education, but about them and
their culture. "
There's even space in the classroom
where students can go and sit if
they're feeling a strong emotion and
Students at Templeton
Elementary in Riverdale,
Md., wear garments from
their native countries. The
school works to make
refugee students feel
comfortable and supported,
including by offering Afghan
students a place to pray and
halal food options.
need a minute away to think or calm
their bodies, Bright added.
With the events in Afghanistan
circulating in the U.S. news, many
Afghan students are expressing concerns
about extended family members
in danger abroad.
" We've been hearing from multiple
sites, elementary and secondary, with
concerns about students having a lot
of anxiety or having a little bit more
aggression than usual because of
the stress of what's happening in the
news, " said Burkhart of the San Juan
district.
In Cajon Valley, families are reaching
out to the district asking for assistance
in evacuating other relatives as well.
The district is appealing to Congress
to help relatives of school community
members who are in danger
in Afghanistan due to their affiliations
with the United States, said David Miyashiro,
the district's superintendent.
As schools work to provide resources
for existing Afghan students during
these tough times, they're also preparing
for the children that will arrive
in the coming months. That includes
training teachers and other staff on
how to best support Afghan newcomers;
connecting with refugee resettlement
agencies to track how many
students will be expected and when;
and preparing to ramp up the community-building
work that's proven most
helpful.
" Where are they going to be served?
How are we going to serve them?
That's just what we do, " said Serban
of the Cajon Valley.
EDUCATION WEEK | October 6, 2021 | www.edweek.org | 13
Randall Pike/Prince George's County Public Schools
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