06.09.2022 | Politico Playbook PM | Of the more than 1 million students in New York City public schools, about 544,000 are from immigrant families and more than 329,000 do not have a parent who speaks English fluently, according to a new data analysis by the advocacy group Advocates for Children of New York. 

The group said the data, from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, shows that multifaceted approaches to communication are needed beyond making translated documents accessible online. The analysis also found that about 55,858 parents of students have no more than an eighth grade education in addition to not being proficient in English and that roughly 61,657 children of parents who have limited English proficiency live in households without broadband internet access. 

The group is part of the Language Access and Immigrant Family Communication Working Group, which sent a letter to city officials requesting an annual investment of $6 million to come up with a permanent, central system for the Department of Education to communicate with immigrant families. “If the new administration is serious about its desire to empower parents as true partners, then the City should be increasing — and certainly not cutting — the multi-faceted immigrant family communication and outreach initiative,” Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of AFC’s Immigrant Students’ Rights Project, said in a statement. Read article