Illegal Immigrant Students

The status of illegal immigrant children who are undocumented is not new in the US, especially considering that the country is experiencing a surge in illegal immigrant children crossing the borders. I need to hold a discussion on this public issue with the board and teachers of Stonybrook Elementary. Measures should be taken to accommodate these children, and campaign held to draw the school fraternity and the community together to secure a fundraising program for the education of these children. The board and the teachers should come into a consensus that will emphasise on the status of the high number of immigrant children in US who are causing a lot of congestion in courts. Most children fail to appear in court while their cases are proceeding and this leads the court giving orders for their deportation. The parents and other guest should give their perception on how to educate these children who suffer the long wait for the court to decide on their cases. A lot of emphasis should be put on how to integrate these children into the society. This will be achieved when we set a goal as a group for purpose of team work. . Setting a goal is very important since a group working towards a goal usually achieves high performance (Whetten & Cameron, pg357)

Many undocumented immigrant children are going through many problems while trying to access the basic needs. Of more importance is the challenge the children are experiencing while trying to access elementary education, not to mention other necessities like poverty, mental and physical health? The immigrant children are the fastest-growing section of the U.S overall population and thus the well-being of these children is very important to every citizen of this nation.  Most indicators shows that children whose parents are immigrant fare worse when compared to other children whose parents are natives. When compared to their age counterparts, there is a higher possibility of immigrant children living in poverty, forgoing medical care and this will culminate in failure to attend school or dropping out altogether. These children also face the challenge of lack of proficiency or knowledge in English language and a culture that is very different the host culture. The biggest challenge is, however, is lack of funds for these children to access basic education. They experience a lot of stress because of these challenges and we thus need to help them overcome. I will come up with an enactive strategy that will provide an environment free of stressors, in this case lack of funds being the stressor for the children (Whetten & Cameron, pg. 140). However, much can be achieved if the community provided a stress free learning experience for these children when they feel that they are part of this group.

The lack of financial means for illegal immigrant parents puts a very big burden on districts and states and thus many of them struggle in providing good education who are legal residents. However, it is the policy of Departments of Education and Justice in United States that local and state schools around the country must allow the minors in who have not been documented to register in schools. The policy states that these children should go to schools that are around the particular district in which they live. Moreover, even the case where they have no proof of residing in that district since no parent guardian brought them to school, the school management should treat them as homeless, which means they should be allowed to attend the school with no home address having been provided. Thus it is the duty of the officials of Stonybrook Elementary school to attend to educational needs of the illegally immigrant children to not only comply with the government policies but to also undertake our humanity duty. Thus the issue at hand is how we will lay down strategies that ensure that these children both of whom have not stayed long enough to get integrated into the society and those who stayed long enough to use English after being integrated into the society. The strategies will also take into account the fact that there may disparities the educational need for various children since some of them have disabilities and come from different backgrounds. This raises the need to understand the differences and appreciating them and not allowing distinctions which may lead to social barriers (Whetten & Cameron, pg.84). The need for special education comes with additional cost and the school needs more funds for this group of students.

Our system of education offers many services and programs to children with disabilities. The provision of such services present a the greatest need of hiring experienced teachers and for such teachers to be attracted to Stonybrook Elementary school there must be enough to provide the teaching and learning materials and at the same time pay them reasonable remuneration. We must set a goal and schemes that will ensure that additional finance got from all the stakeholders of this school, and thus we can manage to meet the needs. My aim is to make these teachers to also feel legitimate and challenged to participate in the schemes since legitimacy increase acceptance which is usually a key to one’s influence (Whetten & Cameron, pg.236). For the schemes to be successful, there is the need to involve the neighbouring community since they are the largest stakeholders and the host of the immigrant community. The work of the community is to enhance and expand resources that can be made available to the immigrant children. Communication mechanisms will be provided so as to sensitize the community on the need to integrate the community programmes that are sustainable and the school. The funding will involve partnership between the community organisations and the surrounding businesses since such an effort will gather enough support to ensure funds collected are enough to reduce the straining on the little resources of Stonybrook. This means that the programs must be self-sustaining and must tap into the existing streams of funds or could be sustainable business plans that involve low or no cost at all. These programs and business plans should come from the members of the community or the private sector so that they can feel that they own them. This partnership will make the stakeholders have the ability to improvise on various ways of raising funds since it will acts as a source power for them to own the project (Whetten & Cameron, pg 319). In so doing the responsibility of raising the fund will rest with the stakeholders. There must be a motivation for the community and the school management fraternity to implement such a strategy. Therefore, the approach will involve linking neighbourhood programs and the school programs. Ownership of the programmes by the community will be a big motivating factor while the success of the same will give the teachers and the management a huge encouragement since people can also be motivated by the intrinsic factors. (Whetten & Cameron, Pg 367)  

In addition to the community programs, the school will organise local fundraising activities that will involve the participation of the old students, teachers, parents and private organisations with an aim of involving all the members of the community. This will include all the activities that can generate money and in-kind resources like the sporting competitions, selling products and services, various charitable donations, sponsorship and grants. Those activities will have to be approved in a meeting with the teachers and the community representatives. The fundraising will not merely focus on funding the basic requirements for educating the undocumented immigrant students but to support and enhance the community programs that will focus more on the long term goal. These activities will be held each year and this way a habit will be formed that is able to create unity for purpose. In order to fully maximise on the fundraising the school will use different foundations. This will attract the philanthropic individuals who are willing and capable of who donating learning materials needed for learning and teaching more so the expensive ones for the special education. Of more importance is the need to build on the private philanthropy as a separate pool of funds where volunteers, more so the in the private industry and this will only be through creating a strong relationship between the school and the business community. To win their support accountability will be highly emphasized by separating the funds in this pool from the one received from the local government. The information on the use of these funds will be availed to every member of the community so as to ensure accountability. Accountability brings about strong interrelationship and provide a room for improvement (Whetten & Cameron, pg.286). This is the surest way of ensuring that all the stakeholders will consistently support the school financially.

The community participation include the involvement of the parents and guardians of the undocumented children especially those that have special learning needs. For the new immigrants, the communication barrier has to be solved. This process will involve both the teachers and the community social workers who will assess the right manner to communicate with the parents and the guardian. There will be need to use translators and more so the district’s bilingual translators for the languages that the significant migrant population have in the area. This will also involve providing written and oral information in a way that the parents and guardians are able to understand. A supportive communication will be achieved which help to build interpersonal relationship and thus get to the core of the issue (Whetten & Cameron, pg. 287). This step is very important the parents and guardians will play a very vital role in emphasizing the need for the community to come together and raising funds for the school.  Immigrant families may be coming from diverse cultures and there may be parents whose culture perceives involvement in such programs as an interference with the school and view themselves as just service consumers. The importance of their participation should be stressed in the case of parents with disabled children since they are the ones in need of more funding, and showing a desire to have their children assisted is likely to persuade the community to give more financial support. This implies use of power of reason to make them see the need for their participation. (Whetten & Cameron, Pg. 324)

It is the moral responsibility for every able U.S citizen to take care of the unaccompanied children since most are normal refugees fleeing from violence and crime in their countries but to make t matter worse they are the most vulnerable. No doubt these children come with additional burden to the taxpayer especially in the provision of elementary education.  Even though the number of the unaccompanied children remain low, the U.S customs and Border Protection has reported that there is sharp increase in their number. While those from nearby countries can be return to their countries quickly, most teens and toddlers from other countries have to be allowed in and resettled as refugees. This has seen a rise in the number of cases in federal immigration and state family courts as there is a lot of paperwork in order to comply with bureaucratic requirements a process that seems endless. There is thus the need to for the community to come together and help in educating these children. This may also involve catering for other needs that government agencies may not manage to meet due to a strain in resources. For this to be successfully done, the community need to work towards integrating these children into our society. In order for the results of fundraising to be successful these undocumented children must be made to feel at home. This will be achieved if a conducive learning environment is provided in Stonybrook Elementary school. Finally, the children will not only be uplifted socially but their future economic status will be made bright. These benefits will then be conferred into the community since the economy will continue to demand highly qualified workers. This will create a norm of reciprocity which help to serve the interests of the two parties, the community and the undocumented children (Whetten & Cameron, pg.324)

 

 

 

Reference

Whetten, D., Cameron, K. (2011). Developing management skills .Pearson Education.8. 68-394