Archive for the ‘schools’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 5, 2012
The mayor of Lynn, MA is putting out alerts about the fiscal pressure experienced by schools in her city, apparently due to refugee secondary migration. Secondary migration is refugees leaving the city they were initially settled in and, under their own volition, going elsewhere due to a whole number of reasons, e.g. to be near friends and relatives, to find a place that has more or higher paying jobs, to seek a less alien climate, to move to a place with a larger community of people from their ethnic group and/or group of national of origin, etc. The main problem here I think is that federal funds are insufficient to help schools impacted by refugee arrivals – the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s grant, known as the Refugee School Impact Program, doesn’t come close to meeting needs.
An article in The Daily News explains some basic details of the problem in Lynn, although it also shows that the mayor is taking a winding and confused course through government channels, even going to the UNHCR, and gets facts wrong about several of the federal agencies:
…[Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy's Chief of Staff, Jamie Cerulli] said after getting bounced from office to office she finally spoke to Barbara Day with the state department’s office of Refugee Resettlement Administration for Children and Families.
“She said for Fiscal Year 2011 they approved 25 refugees to come to the Lynn area,” Cerulli said. “She also said in 2012 it looks like there is approval for 28 … but that’s such a small number. If they’re not coming from there then where are they coming from?”
Cerulli said Day noted that if immigrants already have family in the area they are more likely to gravitate to the same area. Day was not available Thursday for comment and calls to the U.S. State Department of Health and Human Services were not immediately returned.
Cerulli said she plans to keep digging at the federal and state level to try and determine if Lynn has been officially deemed a haven city while also trying to determine exactly what drives immigrants to Lynn.
Kennedy has always emphasized her administration has gone the extra step to celebrate the ethnic diversity and welcome immigrants to the city and she said she would never deny a child or its family services… Read more here
Posted in Boston, capacity, children, funding, language, Office of Admissions, ORR, school for refugee children, schools, secondary migration, refugee, UN (United Nations) | Tagged: Barbara Day, Judith Flanagan Kennedy, Lynn MA, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, Refugee School Impact Program, refugees, resettlement, schools, secondary migration | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 11, 2012
Catholic Family Service in Amarillo has decided to reduce new refugee resettlement numbers by half due to concerns of overload from the local school district, according to an article in the Amarillo Globe-News. Resettlement will now be limited to “family reunification cases” – refugees who are resettling to be reunified with local family members. (The article also gives various confusing numbers for the amount of money the State Department gives for initial resettlement needs (intended as seed money). As of last year the amount was $1800 per refugee, with $700 available for resettlement agency overhead, $900 minimum to each refugee, and $200 that resettlement agencies may redirect to the neediest refugees at the agency. The $1800 was supposedly increased this year, but no numbers yet available.)
Catholic Family Service has lowered the number of new refugees it helps settle in Amarillo to help school officials better handle unique needs posed by refugee children and help the organization meet budget cuts.
Roughly 800 to 900 of the 1,100 refugee students enrolled in Amarillo schools had little to no formal schooling when they arrived in the U.S., and that has created a major learning block, said Kevin Phillips, executive director of student performance for the Palo Duro High School cluster…
…Catholic Family Service, a nonprofit organization, is one of two groups that receives federal funds to help newly arrived refugees settle in Amarillo. Executive Director Nancy Koons said the organization has decided to take in no more than 200 arrivals per year, down from 400 in previous years. Koons said the arrivals will be limited to “family reunification cases.”…
…Koons said [Amarillo Independent School District] principals and school nurses have expressed concerns about the challenges posed by refugee children.
“It seems like we were creating needs by bringing in too many refugees,” she said… Read more here
Posted in Amarillo, Catholic, Catholic Family Service, Amarillo, children, funding, R&P, schools, Somali Bantu | Tagged: Amarillo, Catholic Family Service, refugees, resettlement, schools | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 30, 2012
Thousands of people are reporting having been scammed by online G.E.D. tests (the real test cannot be taken online). People are paying hundreds of dollars for online tests that result in fake diplomas not likely to be recognized by employers or colleges. An article at Valley News Live explains:
The folks who run the G.E.D. tests for students who didn’t graduate from high school have a strong warning about on-line scams, targeting the hundreds of thousands of people.
Denise Richardson was one of the victims. She knew that going back to high school or taking the GED would take more time than she had. So she went on-line and found what looked like the perfect solution.
For a few hundred dollars, she could take what she thought was the G.E.D. test on-line, and if she passed, get her diploma…
…After $500 and a 5-hour test, she got her diploma. But when she then tried to enroll in a local technical college, they were suspicious. Turns out, the test and diploma were fake.
The real GED testing service says thousands of people have also reported getting taken the same way.
“If you’re not coming in person to one of our official testing centers, it’s not the real GED test,” said GED Testing Service president and CEO Randy Trask. ”And it’s not likely to be recognized by employers or colleges.”…
…Experts say the lesson we can all take away is to always go to the real G.E.D. testing website for information about how to take the real G.E.D. in your state. Read more here
Posted in education, scams, schools | Tagged: GED, refugees, resettlement, scam | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 22, 2012
An Iraqi mother has finally found refugee in the bay area, and must now deal with problems faced by poor Americans. She has a job lined up, but can’t enroll her children in school without a permanent residence. She can’t get an apartment, however, without having a job. A story at NBC Bay Area explains her predicament:
On the ninth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an Iraqi mother is desperately eager for her American dream to begin in Santa Clara.
Taghreed Alazzawi worked in Baghdad’s Green Zone as an interpreter for the Texas-based contractor KBR. That work is something she says put a target on her head.
In 2008, she arrived in Santa Clara as a refugee. In the years since, she became a legal resident with a green card, and returned to Iraq for her two sons who were abandoned by their father.
Now, she and her 11- and 12-year-old boys are staying in a $50-a-night motel room — they sleep on the bed, she sleeps on the floor — because she hasn’t found a permanent home.
“If you want to rent an apartment, they want to see check stubs. Being unemployed right now, no, this is going to be almost impossible finding an apartment,” said Alazzawi.
Alazzawi has a job lined up, but can’t work until the children are enrolled in school and they have a permanent residence… Read more here
Posted in Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, employment/jobs for refugees, Iraqi, Santa Rosa, schools | Tagged: Bay Area, catholic charities, Iraqi, refugees, resettlement, Santa Clara | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 12, 2012
Under a new program the City of Seattle will offer job training and educational support to low-income immigrant and refugee youth between the ages of 15-20 who typically have poor high school graduation rates. To pay for the program the City will redirect $315,000 from existing city programs for immigrants and refugees, with another $150,000 in funding added. An article in The Seattle Times has more:
Job training and educational support will be offered to low-income immigrant and refugee youth and their families under a new program announced Tuesday by the City of Seattle…
…The city is looking for established or emerging organizations that can improve the outcomes for immigrant and refugee youth between the ages of 15-20 who typically have poor high school graduation rates, few job skills and little parent support or advocacy…
Advocates say immigrant and refugee teens have a difficult time competing for and landing jobs because of their limited language skills, lack of job training and the gaps in their education because of their family histories… Read more here
Posted in economic self-sufficiency, education, employment/jobs for refugees, funding, schools, Seattle, teens | Tagged: at-risk, graduation rates, job skills, job training, jobs program, refugees, resettlement, seattle, teenagers, youth | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 7, 2011
It’s hard to imagine what its like for some refugee teenagers after we plop them down into our schools when they have little schooling, no English, and no knowledge of the local culture. Imagine not understanding how to get lunch or open a locker for weeks and no one notices. Or worse, being bullied or ignored by other students when adults make little effort to prevent that, or help students understand refugee teenagers’ plight. An article in The Salt Lake Tribune tells the story on young refugee that the refugee program and a school are trying for a better outcome with:
…For typical American teenagers, high school holds both excitement and liberal doses of adolescent angst. Now imagine being dropped into that social pressure cooker with little schooling, no English, and no knowledge of the local culture…
…Rising problems with drugs and gang violence, particularly among refugees in the 18-21 age group, has prompted the [Utah Refugee Services Office] to redouble its efforts with youth.
[Gerald Brown], the refugee services director, says he has attended four funerals for young refugee men in the past two years due to violence or drugs.
“We’re determined to do something about it,” Brown says. “There’s no single answer, but I think if we can put a lot of different things together, then we do have a real chance.”
Part of it is helping students succeed academically, he says. Too often, youths become frustrated when they cannot compete with their peers in school. They find other ways to stand out… Read more here
Posted in Karen, language, men, Salt Lake City, schools, teenagers, teens, Utah, young adults | Tagged: Burma, drugs, gangs, Karen, Myanmar, refugees, resettlement, teengers, Utah Refugee Services Office | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 9, 2011
An in-depth article on the events surrounding the December 2009 attack on dozens of Asian refugee children at a south Philadelphia school, that resulted in 13 refugee children taken to the emergency room, reveals the extent that teachers, the principle, security guards and other staff were present and unresponsive as the attacks occurred. Refugee students report that the principle disappeared while walking children home just before vicious beatings took place. Teachers and cafeteria staff called the students “Yo Dragonball” or “Yo Chinese” and even mocked their accents. The School District of Philadelphia also apparently has an ongoing pattern of unresponsiveness to reports of students bullying refugee students, despite an early 2011 settlement with the Justice Department.
The article also points to relatively large number of refugees from Burma/Myanmar that the State Department resettled in a relatively short period, which the school district was not ready to accommodate. These are some of the considerations the State Department needs to make when reading glowing annual resettlement proposals from their private resettlement contractors
We should not underestimate the catastrophic long-term damage to refugees resulting from these brutalities during their formative years. The article points out that bullying can lead to a lifetime of low self-worth, suicide attempt or depression, and that doesn’t even consider the trauma, tumult and deprivation that refugee have already endured before their resettlement. Hyphen Magazine magazine published this article:
On a cold December day in 2009, just weeks before Christmas, 15-year-old Trang Dang was walking home from school with her sister and eight friends, all recent Vietnamese immigrants. Also part of their group: the principal of their school.
Dang, who is 5’9” with a medium build and a dimpled, contagious smile, asked the principal to accompany them because she and the others were terrified by the intense bullying and violence against Asian students that had taken place earlier that day at their school, South Philadelphia High School. Midway through the walk, the principal, LaGreta Brown, disappeared, Dang said. “She walked to the corner with us and then we didn’t see her anymore,” Dang said. They debated whether to stay or continue walking. “Our friends said if we stand here, we’ll get in trouble,” Dang said. So they opted to try to make it home that day on their own.
They never did.
About half a block from school, a mob of at least two dozen students started chasing them. Dang was the first to be caught. She was punched in the face, shattering her glasses. “It was a quick hit and then they ran,” she said. “After I got hit, then my mind just went blank. I was crying. It wasn’t that painful, I think, but I don’t really remember. I think because I’ve tried to forget about that day.” The entire group was cornered, and all were hit. Dang still doesn’t know for sure why the principal seemingly left the group…
…The entire day, roving gangs of high schoolers searched for and attacked Asian teenagers in a nightmarish ordeal. Most of the attacks took place on the premises of this poor school in south Philadelphia while teachers, security guards and other staff were present.
In total, at least 26 Asian immigrant students were physically assaulted in a series of violent conflicts. Thirteen Asian students ended up in the emergency room for injuries ranging from a broken nose to black eyes. One had to have surgery because he could no longer breathe through his nose…
…Some speculate that the ethnic tensions at the school can be attributed to lack of adult intervention, adults modeling bad behavior such as racially charged name calling, stereotypes and an influx of Asian students in a relatively short time period without the school or district adequately addressing the changes…
…In the last five years, there were 534 documented assaults at the school, more than any other in the district…
…In some cases, bullying can lead to thoughts of suicide, according to Eliza Noh, an Asian American studies professor at California State University, Fullerton, who has studied suicide among Asian Americans. “Some Asian American women I interviewed reported being victims of racist bullying when they were young, contributing to their low self-worth, suicide attempt or depression later in life,” Noh said. Liu pointed out bullying victims are essentially trauma victims who experience post-traumatic stress disorder similar to war veterans. He warned that young people may experience psychosomatic symptoms like feeling ill, as well as hypervigilance, heightened startled responses, depression and social withdrawal… Read more here
Posted in abuse, Burma/Myanmar, capacity, children, dangerous neighborhoods, Dept. of Justice, FBI, mental health, Philadelphia, safety, schools, State Department, teenagers | Tagged: Asian, bullying, Burmese, children, Myanmar, Philadelphia, refugees, resettlement, South Philadelphia High School, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 21, 2011
Once again a school in Philadelphia is the subject of a case involving a refugee child beaten so badly that he had to go to a hospital. A year ago 30 Asian refugee children went to the hospital after just one bullying incident. Now, a Liberian refugee father claims that his pleas to a teacher and principal about the regular beatings of his 6-year-old son brought no relief, and that a phone call and later letter to the district superintendent also got no
response. An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer explains the story:
At first, Gbahtuo Comgbaye, a West African immigrant, was more puzzled than worried when his 6-year-old son started coming home from school with bruises on his chest and neck.
His concern turned to alarm on a mid-September morning as he helped his child, Menduawor, get dressed for the day. The boy tearfully asked, “If my friends beat me up, and hurt me, and wanted to kill me, would you do something about it?”
The story that emerged: Menduawor, a slight, soft-spoken boy, was being routinely beaten by three bigger first-grade classmates at Patterson School in Southwest Philadelphia. They told him, “We don’t like your name.”…
…Comgbaye described his growing horror as his son came home from school bruised and shaken day after day. He said that his pleas to the teacher and principal brought no relief and that a phone call and subsequent letter to the district superintendent got no response.
At the end of September, the boy was beaten so severely that his mother took him to the emergency room at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Hospital records show Menduawor was treated for chest and abdominal injuries, which physician Sarah Wood wrote were caused by blows from a person or object...Read more here
Posted in abuse, children, dangerous neighborhoods, Liberian, Philadelphia, safety, school for refugee children, schools | Tagged: accountability, bullying, human rights, Liberian, Philadelphia, refugees, resettlement, schools | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 6, 2011
A refugee student, now in college in Tucson, is excelling in school after making the honor roll and graduating from high school with a GPA above 3.5. Hussein Magale said that his refugee resettlement agency did not enroll him in school right away, so he had to enroll in school by himself. He took 10 courses, including advanced placement classes, in his first and only semester of high school in the US. An Arizona Daily Wildcat article tells his story:
…Hussein Magale, who fled Somalia with his family in 1992 because of the country’s civil war, lived in the city’s camp for most of his life. The biochemistry sophomore, who speaks three languages, began translating for Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian organization helping his camp, when he was a teenager…
…Magale said he always excelled in class and valued education because it was the only way out of the camp…
…To receive the Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education, or KCPE, Magale said he had to place in the top 100 out of more than 600 students in his group taking the high school entrance exam…He was number 23.
Magale said he continued to excel in high school until he arrived in Tucson in November 2009 through a United Nations resettlement program…
…Dualeh said the agency that brought him here did not enroll him in school right away. So Magale took the initiative, called around and filled out the paperwork. A few months after he left Kenya’s refugee camps, he was already taking classes at Catalina High School.
He took 10 courses, including advanced placement classes, in his first and only semester of high school in the U.S. He made the honor roll and graduated with
a GPA above 3.5…
…Magale’s GPA is still well above a 3.5, he’s part of the Arizona Assurance Scholars Club, captain of a soccer team… Read more here
Posted in Arizona, failure to enroll refugee children in school, school for refugee children, schools, Somali, teenagers, Tucson | Tagged: Catalina High School, Doctors Without Borders, refugees, resettlement, school | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 31, 2011
A high school in Regina, Canada has deemed two Sudanese teenage refugee brothers “international students” and asked them to pay tuition fees of $10,000 each. A CBC News article has more:
Two refugees living in Regina are facing tuition fees of $10,000 each for high school, fees they have no way of paying.
The family caring for Lino and Angelo Kuol are hoping to raise the tuition money by appealing for donations.
The two boys, who are Sudanese, arrived in Regina Friday from Kenya. Before that, they were rescued from a refugee camp in Uganda…
…Lino and his brother Angelo, 15, were also quickly enrolled at Sheldon Williams High School in Regina, which has allowed them to start classes.
However, the boys are considered international students and are expected to pay $10,000 for the school year.
“These two boys, they don’t have any financial support at all,” Avery said. “The charitable organization they’re with did cover the cost of their flights to come here, but they’re not in a position to help with their tuition.”… Read more here
Posted in Canadian refugee resettlement pgrm, schools, Sudanese, teenagers, teens | Tagged: Canada, refugees, Regina, resettlement, sudanese | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
