Teacher (tee-cher) One who educates, inspires and guides the minds of others. See Also: Rockstar

Highlights: Top Ten Strategies
Our guide on supporting immigrant families includes more than 50 strategies for schools childhood centers. Here are some of the most important ones to keep in mind.

Help families keep their emergency contact information updated. This step can make the difference in whether a child goes home with a known caregiver if a family member is detained.

Remind all families to update their contact information regularly.
Ensure all staff understand immigrant students’ rights. All K-12 staff (and particularly staff who enroll families) have an obligation to protect students’ privacy and civil rights, as well as their access to an education, regardless of immigration status.

Let all students and families know that they are welcome. A welcoming environment that celebrates students’ cultures and encourages family leadership creates a strong foundation for relationships, as well as for addressing challenges.

Create different channels for communication in families’ languages. Schools must communicate in families’ preferred language. Identifying families’ preferred means of contact can also help schools communicate more effectively and efficiently.

Become familiar with relevant immigration policies so that you can answer questions. This may include “sensitive locations guidance” (which directs immigration enforcement to avoid activity in certain public spaces like schools and early childhood centers), district policies on immigration enforcement, discipline policies, and other related program/local/state policies.
Ideally, all staff should understand these policies.

Connect families with resources and provide opportunities for them to ask questions. It is critical to hear from your families about their questions and concerns before determining what kind of support will be most useful. This step will help identify which resources are appropriate to share in ways that follow district guidelines.

Reach out to community organizations that serve your families. Community partners can provide valuable support, insight, and volunteers, especially on issues related to meeting students’ basic needs and connecting families to legal resources.

How Lessons Fail ELs info graphic

Video Collection about Getting to Know ELLs

Home visits with Immigrant Families

Advocating for English Language Learners through Culturally Responsive Approaches

https://www.participatelearning.com/blog/advocating-for-english-language-learners/

Student engagement and academic achievement.
Strong and proactive leadership.
An invested school community.

Some of the characteristics of culturally responsive teaching are:

By approaching advocacy from these three perspectives, growth was noticeable in the areas most important to our educators and our families:

Advocacy in the classroom using culturally relevant materials increased student engagement and academic achievement.
Advocacy in leadership led to a stronger and more supportive administration.
Advocacy in the community led to a more invested group of families.

5 Things Undocumented Students Should Know Before Attending College in the U.S.

https://thebestschools.org/magazine/undocumented-student-attending-college/

1.It’s Legal, But It’s Not Easy

2.You Have Rights, but They Can Change

3.Your Access Varies By State

4.To FAFSA or Not to FAFSA

5.Find Support and Utilize Resources

Immigrant Families and Risks with Online Learning Platforms

The risk to immigrant families was recently brought to my attention from the post below.

Online learning is increasing risk for many who have barely come to know safety.

Please be aware that none of the free platforms being used for online learning are secure or HIPAA compliant, including their Pro upgrades (Zoom, etc.) This information is not commonly known in the education field, and educators are not commonly involved in medical and security fields. There is a sizable gap in information as districts hurry to work through the learning curve of moving to online education. Privacy rights are being violated nationwide in the US, and most importantly, safety issues are rapidly adding up.

There are HIPAA compliant and more secure platforms for healthcare and legal professionals, but they are customized platforms and not free. Not all educators have a choice in platforms. The choice of platforms is often out of their hands. However, the method of delivery can be made more secure with better practices, and we need to work together to ensure administrators not well acquainted with our population are aware.

First of all, students should not be required to use live video or even submit videos and photos of themselves, their families, their homes, or ever reveal their locations. Even objects in their homes can pose a risk if they lend identification information. This is especially important for children, anyone who is undocumented or in or from a nation in conflict who still has family and other loved ones there, minors and adults who have fled gangs and gang threats, and millions with domestic violence experiences.

Not only does sharing photos and videos put them at risk because of the lack of security on these platforms, but even participating in these platforms stores location and other personal data in their devices and account histories on both ends, and causes them to be more vulnerable to hackers and predators. ICE also uses popular apps and online data, websites, and social media to locate people.

To help keep students and families safe, teachers should not require student videos or that they be seen on camera in group classes, live meetings, projects or assignments. It just takes once to ruin a life in no time as again, these platforms are not secure and also other participants can take and share screen shots. Facebook groups are also a huge risk and not secure. Neither are Class Dojo or any of the other apps popular with educators.

We must think beyond the safe and privileged lens. Schools are supposed to be a safe place. If you want a compliant, secure platform (Zoom for Healthcare, etc.) it will probably not be free, but student safety is worth paying for. There are business agreements that can be signed for tele-health purposes, for example, to shift liability and create a compliance agreement for Zoom, but they do not make the Zoom platform secure. They simply shift the liability, and that should not be happening on behalf of children and vulnerable families.

If you are being required to use these platforms, please ensure they don’t have to show their faces, submit videos of themselves, their homes, their families, their vehicles, or share their locations (though their locations will be tracked anyway with usage in most cases). Even just knowing you have an unaccompanied minor or a family from El Salvador or Syria or many other locations can lead to trouble for their families here and in their home countries. If you can instead create YouTube videos or podcasts that they can access at any time and review again and again, it’s more conducive to language learning anyway and safer for them. You can also do small group reading via teleconference tools and call them individually and receive calls when needed during a range of office hours.

6 strategies to promote school connectedness

https://content.acsa.org/articles/6-strategies-to-promote-school-c onnectedness

1. Create decision-making processes that facilitate student, family, and community engagement; academic achievement; and staff empowerment.

2. Provide education and opportunities to enable families to be actively involved in their children’s academic and school life.

3. Provide students with the academic, emotional, and social skills necessary to be actively engaged in school.

4. Use effective classroom management and teaching methods to foster a positive learning environment.

5. Provide professional development and support for teachers and other school staff to enable them to meet the diverse cognitive, emotional, and social needs of children and adolescents.

6. Create trusting and caring relationships that promote open communication among administrators, teachers, staff, students, families, and communities.