8/23/2014
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With the first day of school just three days way, how will the immigration influx impact our local classrooms?
They’ve come from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala and have made their way all across the country to reunite with family.
Come the start of the school year, undocumented children may also be making their way into the classroom.
Texas Education Agency (TEA) communications director Gene Acuna said schools across the state are preparing -as much as they can anyway.
“Our dilemma right now is that we don't have very many answers in regards to are these children in fact going to be enrolling in local school districts,” Acuna told Action 4 News.
Undocumented children enroll in valley school districts regularly, but Acuna said the surge of Central American children coming to the US is something the TEA has never dealt with.
The last surge of students from outside Texas, came in 2009 when families fled Louisiana to escape Hurricane Katrina
“We have unaccompanied minors. They're in detention facilities, so the expectations for educating them or for the local districts to take them still have not been spelled out by the federal government,” Acuna said,.
Texas school districts receive funding based on average daily attendance numbers, so if more students are enrolled, present funding increases regardless of immigration status.
But Acuna said right now, superintendents are concerned with much more than the financial impact, since the federal government has not completely addressed the immigration issue.
The TEA is not only concerned about curriculum changes, but also whether they have been vaccinated .
The tea and school districts are doing what they do best , preparing for one of their biggest tests yet.
Superintendents, principals and teachers are in best position to determine the best way to provide education to all children in their classrooms, Acuna said.
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