A coalition of educators, researchers and advocates has launched the National Newcomer Network Policy Platform to improve supports for newly arrived students to the United States, according to Education Slice.
The recommendations call for federal legislation and dedicated state funding to support wraparound services for students, including a proposal to strengthen newcomer case manager roles in school districts in partnership with community-based organizations.
While some school districts have programming in place to welcome newcomer students and address their needs, other districts haven’t yet built this capacity.
Notably, the network refers to newcomer students as a linguistically and culturally diverse group of recent immigrant youth, refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors, migratory children and students with limited or interrupted formal education. These students may have varying levels of English proficiency and not all will be English learners.
There were about 1 million immigrant students in the U.S. during the 2017-18 school year, according to the most recently available federal data.
Education Slice
