As Oak Park’s District 97 elementary schools welcome the first wave of migrant students into the district, the district reiterates that Oak Park will be a welcoming place for all.
During a Dec. 14 meeting, D97 administrators presented an update on how the district was addressing the enrollment of migrant students across its schools.
According to Michael Arensdorff, chief technology officer, there are currently 162 asylum seekers in the Village of Oak Park: 57 of them are children under the age of 18 years old. Arensdorff said most migrant students enrolled are at Holmes Elementary School and Brooks Middle School.
“In our community, whenever there are students, school age children, who want to be enrolled in school, we welcome students into the school district,” said Dr. Ushma Shah, district superintendent.
Currently, D97 has 52 migrant students enrolled.
The elementary school district is in an ongoing collaboration with the Village of Oak Park, The Carleton of Oak Park Hotel and the West Cook YMCA, where some asylum seekers are staying, as well as other community partners.
Dr. Luis De Leon, assistant superintendent of middle schools, said the district is committed to ensuring access to a public education to all families who reside in Oak Park. While doing this, De Leon also said the district implemented its equity policy as well as ensuring it is adhering to responsibilities and duties outlined by the Illinois State Board of Education.
D97’s commitment includes welcoming and supporting migrant students through adaptations in programming, prepared learning environments, and ongoing professional development.
Providing the school board with information on the timeline the district has had to work with, Arensdorff said D97 first became aware of specific families who had school age children in November 2023 and within a two-day period the district registered 28 students.
In the month of November, the district also conducted staff meetings and family orientations to help everyone start off on the right track.
Currently, the district is working on instructional program planning as well as developing Transitional Bilingual Education programs — a teaching approach that focuses on daily instruction in English and allows the student to use their home language when needed.
This type of program allows the flexibility to meet various student needs, regardless of their English proficiency levels and is also a requirement by the state board once a school has 20 or more English language learners.
Based on the number of enrolled migrant students, D97 would be required to provide Spanish TBE, said De Leon.
“Our numbers have been growing through time, it hasn’t been steady,” De Leon said. “With the new families coming in it helped us solidify more of the structures we have in place and what we have to put in place.”
According to De Leon, historically D97 has provided a Transitional Program of Instruction model, usually ESL, for English-learners and currently has the program at all 10 schools and TBE at Holmes and Brooks.
De Leon also addressed staffing and preparing learning environments during the presentation, saying both are key in how the district has prepared for the welcoming of these students.
In terms of staffing, De Leon said D97 has qualified staff that has allowed them to take the steps needed to plan to teach migrant students.
“We have a lot of assets in our staff. Many of the staff have credentials, endorsements, skills and expertise that can support programs like these,” he said.
Shah said the district will plan accordingly to meet the needs of whatever number of students they have with them at the time.
Whether or not the number of migrant students enrolled at D97 at any given time will change is up in the air as Oak Park village trustees voted 4 to 3 in November to provide $500,000 in unspent federal funds, extending its previous emergency declaration through February 6, 2024.
“Our stand has been that whenever there are students, we will plan for them,” Shah said. “We need to make staffing decisions and we will make them based on students that are in front of us at the time but recognizing that could change and we need to adapt later.”
Providing access to a safe and welcoming physical environment is also a priority.
At Holmes, a “Bienvenidos a Holmes” welcoming sign serves as the first visual to the warm welcome being extended to migrant students.
“Imagine going through the experiences that many of them went through, walking into a space like this and being able to see that, how to have fulfillment, safety and inclusiveness that shows,” De Leon said.
But it needs to be more than just a sign, said De Leon who expanded about the other ways they have extended that welcome, including meeting the families and walking them through enrollment forms and answering questions.
Part of that planning is ensuring that staff has access to professional development opportunities. According to De Leon, having staff at state and national conferences helps bring valuable information to the district on ways they can expand and adequately address the education needs of migrants, and all students.
In hopes of facilitating communication, the district provided a direct number parents can call to leave a voicemail that is associated with their Let’s Talk communication platform, which can be used by anyone in the D97 community.
According to Amanda Siegfried, senior director of communications and engagement, the parents will receive a follow-up call or email from the right individual or team.
“That means that somebody can leave a message at that number in their own language, and it will go to our Spanish speaking staff member so their immediate call they get back is in Spanish,” Shah said. “It cuts out that whole navigation. This is a technological innovation that really creates a more inclusive and accessible school district.”
Also on the promotional flyers is a QR code which takes users to the district’s Registration, Residency and Homeless Liaison webpage, where they can submit information and questions in their native language and be contacted by the registration team within 24 to 48 hours.
But as the district sets these plans into place, they are also keeping in mind that changes might need to be made in the future.
“The way things happen, as we receive students, we need to be able to adjust,” said De Leon.