Migrant families flooding into NYC schools
Hundreds of migrant families continue to flood enrollment centers every day with hopes of getting their kids into city public schools by the s𝓀tart of classes next week.
More than 60 migrant students and their parents showed up daily last week to e✅nroll at each of the busiest Department of Ed𝓀ucation Welcome Centers, on Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica and Queens Plaza North in Long Island City.
With 12 enro🦩llment center across the city, more than 400 new students are enrolling citywidꩵe on a given day, insiders estimate.
That does 🔴not count those registered at dozens of migrant shelters, where DOE work⛦ers are being paid overtime to go and enroll kids.
“It’s a disaster,” one enrollment staffer said of th🦂e hardest-hit centers. “Nothing is going smoothly.”
One frustrated principal griped that no plans are being communicated to staff. “I mean, there’s a plan from me, but not one from the DOE.”
In a message to enrollment workers on Friday, Trevonda Kelly, first deputy in the Office of Student Enrollment, acknowledged the “increase in the number of families,” but urged, “Please don’t put much focus on long lines. Instead, keep doing what you’re doing to keep the lines moving.”
This coming week will likely be the busiest one yet, Kelly added in the int꧙ernal message, o🏅btained by The Post.
The busiest center is on Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica, where staff can’t keep up with the volume of people coming in plus calls and emails, sources said. There are 20 to 25 people on staff including temporary workers, retirees and teachers.
An employee 🅠at that location told The Post that staffing is “adequate” compared to other sites, but if it was enough, there wouldn’t be a line▨ outside every day.
And some families in shelters an🐭d with𝓡out access to technology may not know which school their child has been assigned to, he added.
“They’re not getting answers elsewhere, so they all rush here for answers.”
Mirian Tenezaca and her f🍨amily, who arrived last month from Ecuador, visited Long Island City on Wednesday to findౠ out what school her son, Juan David, 10, is supposed to attend.
They left without knowing.
“They tell us nothing,” Tenezaca told The Post. “We hope that they will call us.”
Another recently arrived mother from Ecuador told The Post that her children were assigned schools far away from each other and it would be impossible for her to coordinate pickup and drop-off — and find work as well.
“It is remote from where I live and I want it closer so I can look for a job,” the mom of three said.
Schools Chancellor David Banks said at a briefing this week that just this summer, 500 more asylum seekers — in addition to approximately 19,000 since the start of the migrant crisis — have so far entered the school system.
“They’re still coming every day,” Banks said.
And it could end up being much more given the latest rush observed by The Pos🉐t in the final days before school starts.
There is room for students due to recent🌟 enrollment drops, but schools near shelters are now reaching capacity.
“We work closely with superintendents and principals to identify neighboring scho🐠ols that have seats and available resources and that do not pose travel har🗹dship to the families,” DOE Chief of Staff Melissa Aviles-Ramos said last week.
ဣThe DOE did not immed💫iately respond to a request for comment.
Early Saturday, 144 migrants, including many children and babies, were abandoned on the street at the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan before being transported to the Roosevelt Hotel in Ubers by advocacy groups.
Edibel, a 22-year-old woman who arrived Saturday morning from Venezuela with her 2-year-old son, was optim🦂istic discussing her son’s educational future here.
“I want him to [go to school] and learn English,” she said.
The mother added that she didn’t know how she would enroll her son in school.
“I will ask others inside what 🐎to do. I think it will be easy, no problem,” she said with a sh𝓀rug.
