School District Prepared for Immigrant Children

Many immigrant children from Central America still remain in the U.S. as a new school year begins.

You may recall some were processed and released at the border patrol facility in El Centro, some even thought to possibly make their way to the Coachella Valley.

On Thursday, students in the Coachella Valley Unified School District had their first day of school.

“You can see their smiles on faces from kinder to pre-school… all the way to high school, there’s an anticipation,” Superintendent of Coachella Valley Unified School District Superintendendent, Dr. Darryl Adams said.

And he says it’s the district’s mission to provide all their students with the best education possible.

“They need educating and regardless of where they come from or where they’re born, we’re here to educate them,” said Adams.

Referring to the recent arrival of undocumented immigrants, he says the district doesn’t expect many of these children to enroll into CVUSD schools this year.

“I’ve been in contact with through email with the county office of education and the california department of education and they haven’t heard anything either,” Adams said.

However, the district is prepared to will welcome any students from anywhere. Under federal law, children get to attend public school regardless of their immigration status.

“We work very closely with the families and we do test our students when they come in to find out where they are and where we need to take them,” Adams said.

He says the district receives money from the state to fund their education.

“That comes from our taxpayers, you know we get a certain allocation for each student that we bring in,” Adams said.

As for any concerns about the childrens’ health and other students’ safety, the district works with the county health department to make sure they meet all medical requirements, including vaccinations.

The valley’s two other school districts say they also didn’t receive notification about any immigrant children going into their school systems.

In fact, school districts are not allowed to ask about a students immigration status, so they may never really know how many of these students may enter their school district.