09.01.2022 | City Limits | City officials say the pilot has been in the works since last year and was not a response to the increase in the number of immigrant families seeking asylum in New York over the last few months from the southern border. On Aug. 19, the mayor announced the multi-agency plan Project Open Arms, which establishes guidelines for helping these new arrivals in the enrollment process, though his plan didn’t mention transfer schools.
But advocates say the timing was fortuitous: the recent asylum seekers include more than a thousand school-aged children. Last school year, 43 percent of the city’s public school students spoke a language other than English, according to the DOE.
Advocates welcomed the news and saw this as the first step, but were awaiting more details.
“Looking forward to hearing more about it,” said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of the Immigrant Students Rights Project at Advocates for Children of New York. Read article