Classrooms reshaped by record migrant arrivals in US

CHARLEROI, Pennsylvania - Dana Smith had been teaching first grade at the public school in the small Pennsylvania town of Charleroi for more than 16 years when she found herself confronting a new challenge last year: a sharp rise in students from Haiti who did not speak English.

She started using a phone app to translate lessons, but the constant pauses for translation frustrated her. She wondered if she was hindering the learning of American students who knew some of the basics she was reviewing, a complaint raised by a vocal segment of parents in the district. “It was very stressful,” she said. “We never know when we’re going to get new ones coming in, where their levels are, how adjusted they are to this culture. The unexpected.”

More than half a million school-age migrant children have arrived in the US since 2022, according to immigration court records collected by Syracuse University, exacerbating overcrowding in some classrooms; compounding teacher and budget shortfalls; forcing teachers to grapple with language barriers and inflaming social tensions in places unaccustomed to educating immigrant students.

To gauge the impact of immigration on public schools across the US, media sent a survey to more than 10,000 school districts. Of the 75 school districts that responded, serving a total of 2.3 million children or about 5% of the public school population, a third said the increase in immigrant children had had a “significant” impact on their school district. While not exhaustive, the media survey, the first by a media organization, offers the most extensive view to date of how US public schools are grappling with record migrant arrivals across the southern border. The responses spanned school districts across 23 states, from Texas to Alaska, and include the largest urban district of New York City as well as the tiny and rural Hot Springs Elementary School District in southern California, with just 16 pupils. Forty-two districts said they had hired more English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers and consultants. Fifteen districts described difficulties communicating with parents or a lack of interpreter services. “Textbooks are not in their language.

Resources are not easily available. Google Translate does not work that great,” the Springfield City school district in Ohio said in its response to the survey conducted between late August and late September.