DeKalb schools enroll unaccompanied minors apprehended at the border

Georgia counties where 50 or more unaccompanied minors were released from Jan. 1 through July, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services Administration for Children & Families.

Cherokee County 65

Cobb County 138

DeKalb County 347

Fulton County 64

Gwinnett County 266

Hall County 85

In the days before the start of school last month, youths from other countries overwhelmed the school registration office in DeKalb County, camping out overnight to secure a spot in line.

It turns out that a fraction were among a group whose arrival has stoked an anti-immigrant backlash nationally. Among the 777 foreign-born children who registered this summer at DeKalb’s International Welcome Center were at least 79 unaccompanied minors who had been apprehended on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Immigration critics contend that allowing these children to remain in the country is a drain on services, especially education. Under a decades-old ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, public schools must educate all children, regardless of their citizenship.

But the DeKalb County School District, Georgia’s third largest with more than 100,000 students, has barely noticed the influx.

“I would characterize it as being just very marginal,” said district spokesman Quinn Hudson. The new students represent less than a 1 percent increase in enrollment.

DeKalb is the top destination in the state for these youths, who have been fleeing poverty and gang violence in Central America. In the first seven months of this year, 37,477 were released to adults in the United States pending deportation hearings, according to The U.S. Health and Human Services Department. Georgia got 1,412 of them. The wave of children has become a humanitarian crisis and a flash point in both the congressional debate over immigration and in Georgia's gubernatorial race between Republican Gov. Nathan Deal and Democratic state Sen. Jason Carter.

As of July 31, 347 of these children and teenagers had been settled in DeKalb, according to federal figures. It’s unclear why that number is more than four times larger than the number recorded by the district. One likely explanation, though, is that school officials cannot demand citizenship records and only a fraction of parents or guardians who registered these students used the federal document that indicates unaccompanied minor status.

Sandra Nunez, who runs the DeKalb schools' international center, said prospective students need only produce documents that establish their age, immunization history and residency within the district, all facts contained on the federal document. She speculated that only some used those documents for registration because it was more convenient than tracking down other documents.

The new students will typically require interpretation services and other help, but Nunez said accommodating them will take only "a little bit more effort." The district has about 21,000 students for whom English is a second language, so it already has the trained teachers and interpreters on staff to support foreign students, she said.

Some contend that educating these children is a burden on local schools. The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that advocates tighter immigration restrictions, released a report contending that the cost in Georgia would be $23,245,642, or $16,799 per student.

That is more than twice the cost of educating a typical student in DeKalb.

The district could not confirm or contradict FAIR’s estimate. DeKalb finance officials estimated it costs about $8,000 to educate each student on average, but the supplemental cost for immigrants is difficult to calculate because their needs can vary. DeKalb spends more than $3 million on services for immigrants and English language learners, but U.S.-born students sometimes require language services while some immigrants do not, so those costs cannot be attributed solely to unaccompanied minors.

Nunez said the special services are covered by the state and federal governments, and not by local taxes. The Georgia Department of Education could not calculate a specific statewide cost.

Gwinnett County received the second largest group of unaccompanied minors in Georgia, 266 of them. Gwinnett school district spokeswoman Sloan Roach said, “We are using resources in new and creative ways to try to help them learn English,” including a computer-based program that develops literacy skills. She said, “We are meeting the needs of these students with existing resources.”

Some object to the price whatever it may be.

“If they’re illegal, they should immediately be put on a plane and flown back to where they came from,” said Steve Ramey, founder and co-chairman of the Gwinnett Tea Party. “It’s incredible all the aid that you have for people who have never done a darn thing for the country,” Ramey said.

Others have more nuanced opinions.

Jay Harris, who was holding hands with his little boy and girl as they walked from Montgomery Elementary School near Dunwoody on a recent afternoon, said he doesn’t like paying to educate other countries’ children.

“We need to protect our borders,” the taxpayer said. But then he reflected further, and the father in him spoke.

“You have to have a heart,” he said. “You can’t just not take care of these kids.”