Non-English speaking students need to learn English
on their own before they enter US schools.
Message to new ‘welcoming’ towns: get out your
wallets for your school system! by Ann Corcoran 12/10/16
Ehtesham-Cating
said… she cannot foresee the government penalizing Rutland schools if they
cannot provide translation services right away.
This is yet another story from
Rutland, VT where citizens and elected officials have been questioning a
resettlement contractor (USCRI) and the federal government for months about the
details of the US State Department’s decision to send the FIRST 100
Syrians there perhaps next month!
Board of Aldermen President William
Notte wanted to know about school funding if the refugee children arrive in the
middle of the school year.
As we point out in our 2015 post ‘Ten things
your town needs to know‘, when ‘welcoming’ refugees, the impact of the
resettled refugees will be felt first in your school system’s budget.
Here is what we learned at Vermont Watchdog: Miriam Ehtesham-Cating, the English language program director for the Burlington
School District, said the focus needs to be on elementary and high school kids,
in keeping with the federal government’s requirements for English language learning.
In news dated December 2nd, USCRI
says it is proceeding with plans for Rutland with a wait and see attitude toward
the incoming Trump Administration.
“Vermont and the federal government have a strict regulatory process
for identifying English language learners, and providing language assistance,”
Ehtesham-Cating said.
Ehtesham-Cating, who oversees
English language instruction for 14 schools, said services for preschoolers
would not likely be a priority. “It is more important for staff to receive
coaching and to receive help in developing learning profiles for these
children,” she said.
In addition, since
schools are required to send materials home to students and parents in a
language they can understand, Rutland schools will need to offer some sort
of translation services. Ehtesham-Cating said that in her opinion, she cannot foresee the
government penalizing Rutland schools if they cannot provide translation
services right away.
Winooski, another refugee resettlement community in Vermont, spends
about $1 million dollars annually on language services. Rutland schools would have a much lower tab, said
Ehtesham-Cating, since only two full-time liaisons would likely be needed to
help an estimated 40 refugee school kids.
“(Language services) aren’t just a
requirement, they’re good practice,” she said. “Some of these children have
grown up their whole lives inside a camp. They don’t know how to even go to school.
… Rutland has to decide how they are going to help these children transition.” Continue
reading here. See our complete archive on the on-going tension in
Rutland, VT by clicking here.
The federal contractor WRAPSnet
previously maintained a list of a couple hundred resettlement offices, here. As of this writing they have removed that list and
so after years of being able to see where refugee offices are located that
information is no longer available to you.
Rutland is one of 47 new sites the US State
Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement have quietly targeted as new
resettlement sites. One of the first things the Trump
Administration must do is to make all of this information public information. Here are some of the sites we have identified so far:
Asheville, NC
Rutland, VT
Reno, NV
Ithaca, NY
Missoula, MT
Aberdeen, SD (may have been thwarted
as a primary resettlement site!)
Charleston, WV
Fayetteville, AR
Blacksburg, VA
Pittsfield, MA
Northhampton, MA
Flint, MI
Bloomington, IN
Traverse City, MI
Poughkeepsie, NY
Wilmington, DE
Watertown, NY (maybe)
Youngstown, OH (maybe)
Storm Lake, Iowa
https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2016/12/10/message-to-new-welcoming-towns-get-out-your-wallets-for-your-school-system/
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