CPS roundtable calls for more bilingual teachers, services for migrant students

CHICAGO - Chicago Public Schools need more bilingual teachers and better wraparound services for migrant students and their families, participants of a roundtable implored on Wednesday.

The discussion, held at Cameron Elementary School in Humboldt Park, covered how the migrant crisis in Chicago is impacting public schools and included CPS teachers, migrant parents, local and national teachers union leaders, a state representative and a community advocate.

"I see this moment not just as a challenge but as a real opportunity to reinvest in the public education that all of our students deserve," said Gabriel Paez, the English learner program teacher at Cameron.

Paez said Cameron has about 200 newcomers enrolled, and 126 of them are Students in Temporary Living Situations, or STLS. There’s no exact figure for how many migrant students are enrolled at CPS schools, but it’s estimated to be in the thousands based on STLS and ESL figures.

The city has received more than 34,000 migrants since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing migrants from the southern border to Chicago and other cities run by Democratic politicians last year.

Paez, who works with migrant students every day at Cameron, said a major challenge at CPS schools is a shortage of bilingual teachers.

"We have a long-standing shortage of bilingual educators in CPS," Paez said. "It affects our kids gravely. It affects their ability to learn and to progress once they’ve arrived here."

A bilingual teacher can not only help a new student get settled and feel comfortable, Paez said, but they also help the student continue learning their native language and ease into learning English.

He called for the school district to fully cover the tuition cost for teachers to get their bilingual ESL certification, a requirement to teach in both English and Spanish.

CPS budgeted for fewer bilingual teachers each year from 2018 to 2023, a Sun-Times analysis found. In that period, the district went from about 33 English-learner students per bilingual teacher in 2018 to 43 kids per teacher by the end of the 2022-2023 school year.

Maryorie Alejandra Vega, whose daughter is a second grader at Cameron, said her child was initially enrolled in a bilingual class with fellow newcomers.

But she was later moved to an all-English class, even though she’s still learning English and wasn’t prepared to make that switch.

"We need more bilingual teachers because there are kids who are not prepared to only learn in English yet, like my daughter," Vega said in Spanish.

Many of the panelists agreed Wednesday that the city isn’t equipped to handle the many needs of migrant students and their families.

Stacy Davis Gates, president of Chicago Teachers Union, said collaborative efforts among the mayor’s office, CPS and CTU have been effective. She pointed to union members and district officials going to police stations and shelters over the summer to enroll migrant children in school.

"That is unheard-of collaboration between the union and the school district. That is the leadership that we get in this moment. But that leadership can only go so far because the city doesn’t have capacity," Davis Gates said.

"We need our collaboration to extend beyond the city. The city is not set up to deal with an immigration crisis. We do not have the infrastructure," she added.

Randi Weingarten, president of the Washington, D.C.-based American Federation of Teachers, also joined the discussion and pledged to donate 50,000 bilingual books to CPS.

"CPS needs federal help now to make sure that these kids are humanely received and that we can accommodate their learning, their mental health needs," Paez said. "In order to receive these kids, we need so many systems in place, and we’re building the ship as it’s already sailed."

Those systems must support the students and their families and include housing, employment and basic necessities such as food and clothing, Paez said. He said schools like Cameron should also have a dedicated staff member to help handle the students’ needs that extend beyond the classroom.

Paez took a Cameron student to the hospital after he learned part of her hand was missing. He later found out she was injured in a car crash in Mexico on her way to the U.S.

"We’re going above and beyond our job descriptions on this," Paez said. "Taking children to the ER is not in my job description. But we do it because the need is there."