Schools

In addition to the impeccable trauma that the Syrian community carries, families also have to make the transition to a completely new schooling system.

In the 2016-2017 school year alone, the Saint Louis Public Schools (SLPS) welcomed over 700 new ESOL students, over 130 of which were Syrians.

As previously explained, the International Institute places refugee families in apartments, which are often located in the City of Saint Louis, and   thus these children are enrolled in SLPS.

Fortunately, SLPS’ ESOL department is quite expansive as their students come from 55 different countries and speak 46 different languages. This large population of immigrant students resulted in a variety of English as a second language programs and a multitude of facilities to help the immigrants families transition to the American school system.

Alla Gonzalez Del Castillo, Ph.D., is Director of the ESOL Bilingual Migrant Program in the SLPS.

Once refugee families get settled, the Institute helps them get in contact with Gonzalez, where they work with bilingual staff  to complete the necessary paperwork. Language assessment is obligatory by federal law, and is followed by familial interviews and a transfer of transcripts in attempt to better understand where the student is intellectually. The district recognizes the difficulty that intelligent students often have when they are forced to return to repeat basic subjects in English.

“We ask questions as to whether they’ve been to school, how long have they been to school, what languages did they study in? If it’s high school: do you have transcripts? Like all of that, that’s the second piece of the puzzle. Then we’re also looking at how long they’ve been in the country,” Gonzales said.

After this round of assessment, students are placed into the appropriate ESOL program. If students have lived less than two years in the United States, have little educational background, and low language proficiency, they are considered to be a newcomer and placed in the newcomer program.

For kindergarten through 8th grade, there is a whole separate newcomer school. For 9th and 10th graders, there is a newcomer program inside the regular school. These two programs both teach several subjects with a focus on English learning as well.

Although instruction is SLPS’ main focus, other facets of the transition to the United States are addressed as well.

“We do a lot of social work as well,” Gonzales added. “We have social workers on staff just for that social emotional growth and adjustment issues. The counselors, as well, are doing a lot of work with high school students.”

Along with being uprooted from their homes, immigrant children inherit the pressure any child would have moving to a new school and making friends. For refugees, this stress is exacerbated by the traumatic memories of their homeland and the tumultuous journey to the U.S.

“We don’t diagnose students, but all of the students, essentially, come with a lot of stress,” Gonzales said. “Students who flee from their country of birth because of war or some political situation have a more intense situation of stress.”

With so many students suffering from mental health issues, Gonzales said, “It is very difficult to address because not only are they learning to trust staff members here, they’re also learning to speak English.”

Gonzales added, “we partner with different organizations, realizing our limitations when it comes to mental health, that specialize in that. We have a couple of projects and grants that help us support that area.” Similar to the International Institute, the St. Louis Public Schools work with BIAS to address the many mental health cases.

With immigrants coming from all around the world, few come bearing knowledge of American culture. In many countries, the role of women in society is drastically different from those in the States. Thus, the cultural education becomes just as important as learning the English language for these refugees.

This is not just a Saint Louis City issue, as it pervades the confines of the Clayton bubble. Three new students have joined Clayton High School. One Clayton Schools family has shared their story.