02.19.2020 | Chalkbeat NY | From 2013-2017, 4,200 newly arrived older immigrant students — ranging in age from 14 to 21 — were not enrolled in school, according to U.S. Census Bureau data analyzed by Migration Policy Institute, in response to a request from the New York Immigration Coalition. The immigrant advocacy group defined “newly arrived” as youth who have lived in the United States between zero and three years. 

“That’s about the size of a small town in the USA,” said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of the Immigrant Students Rights Project at Advocates for Children New York. 

As a result, a coalition called Education Collaborative — made up of more than 30 community groups — wants the education department to open a $6 million pilot program that would offer more seats at transfer schools for newly arrived, older immigrants. Read article