How the migrant crisis overwhelmed DC public schools
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing migrants from Washington, DC to Texas in April 2022.
D.C. Public Schools officials’ emails provide a glimpse of the strain on Washington, D.C. schools as the sanctuary city struggles with an influx migrants in the nation’s capital.
These emails, which were obtained by Parents Defending Education through a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA), and shared with Fox News Digital show a variety of challenges that officials face, including the difficulty of finding bilingual staff and finding suitable placements.
The emails were sent in 2022 and 2023 when the number of migrants at the border was increasing and Texas Governor. Greg Abbott began busing migrants from D.C. to “sanctuary cities” across the nation.
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A report from April 2023 states that “[Language Acquisition Division] is struggling to find seats/school placements available within 45 minutes from the temporary hotel sites.”
There are Enrollment Reserve requests pending for the schools in progress. The number of families with children who need immediate support has increased faster than DHS or Office of Migrant Services anticipated, making the need to add additional enrollment reserves more urgent.
The report indicates that several schools and grades in the district are full, and cannot accommodate any more students. The report stated that “high levels” of satisfaction were reported by families with the school placements.
In an email sent in 2022, a DCPS employee from the Office of Elementary Schools warns that a school has received “an influx of ELL students [English Language Learners] who do not speak English and the teachers require instructional support to support our scholars.”
The email also mentions “increased difficulties with school placement of Migrant students.”
This email from November 2022 says there are more families with multiple kids, and that 10-12 students were added in one day.
It says: “Seat availability is a major problem in the current situation.” We were trying to keep siblings together in the same school but we had to separate some families when it came to school placement.
The official stated, “I spoke to several principals about placing students in grades where they are over or at capacity.”
The email from the Director of Academic Programming for English Learners describes an urgent need for classes and staff to be added at one school. This includes classroom teachers.
The families will benefit from having an option to attend school that is close by. With the cold weather and the limited number of warm-weather clothes available, it will be a great relief for them.
A second email, dated March 2023, stated that the district would be receiving another 100 students in the next year. They asked for “transportation for this District emergency” and for “seat availability”.
A chart obtained through the FOIA indicates that there are 155 additional migrants at four schools, with another 120 expected. In a Jan. 2023, email, the enrollment reserve to hire additional staff had been exhausted. A chart from February of 2023 shows that there was no extra capacity at four schools with 70, 50 and 80 migrant school students enrolled in each.
Cities that were hit hard by the influx of migrants blamed it on the buses from Texas sent by Gov. Parents Defending Education, a group affiliated with Greg Abbott, said that the crisis was a result of a failure by Texas to enforce immigration laws.
In a press release, Erika Sanzi said that the failure to enforce immigration laws would result in an influx of students with high needs, who speak a foreign language and may have had little formal education.
It’s not just DC that is suffering from this burden.
D.C. Public Schools didn’t respond to Fox News Digital when they asked for comment, but in October a spokesperson said that about 400 students were from migrant households enrolled at schools.
The ongoing stress on cities that have seen a large influx of migrants is just the latest example. Officials in New York City are looking at ending sanctuary policies, which have been blamed for some of the problems caused by the massive migrant influx.