The sensations of the first day of school in Chicago — from excited introductions to relearning to sit still — remain a mystery for Johanderson Velasquez, a recent immigrant, because he was turned away before he got the chance.
The 13-year-old from Venezuela arrived Monday morning at a CPS location near where his family is staying, hoping to enroll — but instead he was told the school didn’t have enough Spanish speakers on staff to accommodate him.
“I was nervous because it was just like the movies I saw about school,” Velasquez said of the hubbub outside Woodlawn’s Emmett Louis Till Math and Science Academy, about a mile away from the Grand Crossing police station where he and others were staying.
The group of about 10 children was told to return to the school Tuesday or wait for a call, said Zach Goldstein, a volunteer with the Police Station Response Team, a group of several hundred people that have been helping immigrants at police stations with basic needs such as food and clothing. Goldstein accompanied several families to the school Monday.
“The staff said they weren’t prepared to accept English language learners,” said Goldstein, 24.
CPS disputed the allegations in a statement Monday, saying one of the families had an outdated form that stalled the process, but that officials attempted to provide updated forms.
“The group then left, even as the principal and staff were attempting to help the families,” according to the statement.
Goldstein disputed that account. “There was no mention of any outdated forms,” he said. “We did not leave as they were attempting to help us. I repeatedly asked if there was any way they could stay, and they told us to leave.”
The Woodlawn school is 96% Black, less than 3% Hispanic and has no English learners, according to CPS data.
The accusation comes about a week after CPS officials had told reporters that minors staying at police stations would have help enrolling in nearby schools.
“I felt a little bad about it because the kids are the main reason we’re here,” said Eliannys Piña, a mother of 9-year-old Elias and 6-year-old Susej, who were both turned away as well.
“Education is something that they need,” Piña said.
About 1,000 immigrants remain in police stations as of last Tuesday, according to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, including some 400 minors.
CPS said Chicago Teachers Union volunteers would help enroll children at police stations for school, but Britt Hodgdon, a lead volunteer at the Grand Crossing station, said that hasn’t happened there.
“Summer has come and gone and we’ve received zero outreach,” Hodgdon said.
Hodgdon said families have been staying at the station since March and during the last school year, CPS didn’t have the students enroll in schools then, either.
Last week, with the first day of school approaching and no help apparent, Hodgdon and others tried to register the students themselves.
They filled out registration forms with the families at the station, which they planned to deliver Monday.
Two high school-age students from the police station were able to register at Hirsch Metropolitan High School, Goldstein said, though they were advised to use Google translate as the school wasn’t set up for English-learners.
About those students, CPS said, “Hirsch has identified the students are in need of English Learner services and is working with the District’s Talent Office to ensure staff are at Hirsch to provide services to new students this week.”
In the statement, CPS said it was “developing a plan to incorporate enrollment procedures for those families who are staying at police stations.”
The statement continued: “We are working with urgency and are dedicated to enrolling as many families as quickly as we can. This includes deploying mobile units to local police stations and other temporary shelters this week to ensure all children are provided access to our services.”
Some say those plans should already be ready. “This is not a surprise,” Hodgdon said of the families trying to enroll. “Children have been in stations since March.”
Another pair of immigrants staying at a West Side police station said they also had trouble enrolling, said volunteer Celine Woznica.
Woznica said she brought two 16-year-olds from the Austin District police station to Austin High School last Friday and they were sent to the Roberto Clemente Welcoming Center.
On Monday, they returned to the high school after an administrator at another CPS school told them the high school should accept them. Administrators at Austin directed them to a Belmont Cragin high school, where administrators told them to return to Austin.
After the successive trips and three hours of moving between schools, Woznica said they finally managed to get the two students registered at Austin High School.
“They just didn’t want to deal with migrant children,” Woznica said.
Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.
