The Riverhead school district will need to hire additional ESL teachers — above and beyond the three new positions added to the budget this spring — to handle the increase in the number of students enrolled in Riverhead schools who do not speak English, Superintendent Nancy Carney said. The extent of the need is still being assessed.
The $121 million operating budget approved by district voters in May included three new ESL teaching positions, which the district was able to add because of an increase in state aid. Those three new positions would bring the number of ESL teachers in the district to 16. But the district hasn’t been able to fill all the slots, Carney said.
ESL teachers are in high demand on Long Island, which has received more than 2,200 school-age immigrants, the highest number of unaccompanied immigrant children in the tri-state region in 2014, according to Newsday.
“Unaccompanied children” are those who have been entering the U.S. illegally from Central America, hoping to reunite with parents or other family members already living here. Many are fleeing violence and poverty in their homeland and many have completed harrowing journeys across the the border.
Riverhead has had 61 unaccompanied immigrant children enroll since July 1, though the total number of new students identified as immigrants from other countries was 108 — so far.
“Our screening is not complete yet, so an exact figure isn’t yet available,” Carney said in a Sept. 16 email.
The total number of new English language learners this September is about on par with what the district has seen at the start of each new school term in the past few years — about 100 each September — according to numbers provided by Carney. The new ELL students are not necessarily immigrants.
There were 684 ELL K-12 students in Riverhead schools in 2012-2013 and 715 enrolled as of September 2013. That number increased to 781 by May 2014. Another 108 English learners enrolled since July 1, bringing the total K-12 ELL enrollment to 875 as of the end of last week. The district had estimated ELL enrollment of 875 K-12 pupils in its budget projects this spring.
The district used documentation and immunizations records to determine how many of the English language learners enrolled since July 1 come under the status of “unaccompanied children,” Carney explained.
The wave of child immigration has stirred up controversy locally and across the nation, ratcheting up already intense emotions on a hot-button political issue, as communities and school systems struggle to cope with the influx. In addition to English instruction, the new immigrants often need special education and a variety of social services.
Yet local schools have not been as hard hit as other districts on the island.
Sister Margaret Smyth, who runs the North Fork Spanish Apostolate, said last week her office has helped more than 100 unaccompanied children register in local schools since April. The majority of them went to Riverhead, she said, but other districts were represented.
Though the children are all ages — the youngest she saw was 2 years old — she said there have been a lot of older kids and high schoolers coming into the country unaccompanied. The older children present a special set of needs and problems, Smyth said.
“A lot of them coming in who are not on target for their educational level,” she said. “A lot of them are coming in traumatized, especially if they’re coming out of violence in their country.”
Among the services the organization provides is a therapist on call “for immediate problems,” Smyth said.
One 17-year-old boy who arrived in her downtown Riverhead office was “a skinny, skinny kid,” she said. “I asked him what was hard about coming here. He said when they were trying to cross the border, the coyote would see immigration officers and would run back across into Mexico.” That continued for 15 days. “He didn’t eat for 15 days,” Smyth said.
“We have orientation programs to help people who’ve been separated a long time to create a new family. One mother hadn’t seen her two sons for 11 years,” she said. “Some of these boys, the older ones, have been acting as men back home. Now we’re saying to them, ‘become a child again.’ It isn’t an easy situation.”
Another boy said he was one of 20 children — including babies — aboard an inflatable dinghy that had to cross a river. There were no life jackets. He had heard rumors that U.S. immigration officers punched holes in the inflatable boats.
“He was afraid the boat would sink and the babies would drown,” the nun said.
“When the children started coming in, we started doing a series of things here. We give
English classes at the library, especially for the older kids. We have four volunteers doing English classes. We help them fill out school papers, get an immigration lawyer
and get medical insurance. We get them to a therapist as needed.
“We ensure that they’re living in permanent housing, with family.
“The government is sending social workers to their homes to make sure they are going to a good situation, to make sure the children have beds,” Smyth said.
The majority of children coming through the North Fork Spanish Apostolate’s office originated in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, Smyth said.
Anecdotally, Smyth said she’s heard of other school districts on the island that have 16 or more “border children” in one classroom. Hempstead alson saw an influx of 1,200 unaccompanied immigrant kids, Smyth said.
Newsday puts the total number settled in Nassau County at 1,096 through July 31.
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