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Complaint: Immigrants Ill-Served In City Schools
By ROBERT A. FRAHM
Courant Staff Writer
May 31 2007
When Hartford schools sent newly arrived families
of Somalian refugees notices about school events, the families couldn't
read them because the notices were written in English. When Spanish-speaking
students at Hartford Public High School studied biology, they received
worn biology textbooks published in 1992. Their English-speaking
classmates got texts published in 2002.
And when a Liberian immigrant had repeated disciplinary
problems and suspensions, school officials said they had not yet
evaluated him for special education classes because new arrivals
needed time to adjust. The boy had been enrolled for 2½ years.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for
Civil Rights will investigate those allegations - part of a wide-ranging
complaint that Hartford's public schools have failed to provide
adequate services to many recent immigrants and other non-English
speaking children.
The complaint, filed by a children's advocacy
group, alleges a lack of proper curriculum and support, particularly
for recent arrivals from Somalia, Liberia, Cuba, Afghanistan and
other countries.
The civil rights investigators will arrive in
June to investigate the group's claims that the school district
has placed non-English speakers in inappropriate classes, given
them outdated textbooks and left them without necessary support,
such as special education classes.
The Center for Children's Advocacy, based in
Hartford, asked the federal agency to investigate possible violations
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
The center is seeking orders for remedies such
as better materials, additional tutors and a system for rendering
school-related materials in languages other than English.
"Many of the students we refer to have not had
previous education" but are assigned to classes with students who
are far more advanced, said Emily Breon, a lawyer with the children's
advocacy center. "We're talking about students who are learning
to count from one to 10 ... who are placed in algebra classes."
Hartford school officials say the school system
has already begun addressing some of the problems, and recently
underwent a successful federal audit of programs for children who
are learning to speak English.
Nearly half the district's students come from
families who speak a language other than English at home, according
to state figures.
The Center for Children's Advocacy says about
8 percent of the school population consists of recent arrivals,
including refugees, from more than 90 countries.
Officials estimate that the district's students
speak about 50 languages.
"We really make an all-out effort to reach these
populations," said Ana Maria Olezza, director of the school system's
bilingual department. "Within the languages there are dialectical
variations, so it is a challenge."
The children's advocacy center alleges the
district has failed to communicate adequately with non-English speaking
families.
But Olezza said schools have hired tutors and
translators, made efforts to reach non-English speakers by telephone
and created orientation videos and handbooks in several major languages.
Olezza also said the district continues to update textbooks for
non-English speakers.
The center also contends that schools have failed
to adequately identify new arrivals for special education classes
or language support programs.
In addition, it says non-English speakers do
not always receive the same opportunities their classmates do.
It cites, for example, a math program at Hartford
Public High School for ninth-graders who are more than three years
behind grade level.
The intensive program, known as "Ramp Up," is
not offered to bilingual students, the complaint says.
Contact Robert A. Frahm at rfrahm@courant.com
Copyright Hartford Courant
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