Common Challenges in Educating Refugee Children
There are many various challenges facing the education system within the United States regarding properly educating refugee children. One challenge that faces educators is the cultural differences around the ideas of safety and rules; example, the use of car seats.
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The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 tasked teachers with using research-based strategies to deliver services to their students, however no information was provided on what that would entail when working with culturally diverse populations (Hurley et al. 2011). Any information available is limited only to migrant families who speak Spanish (Hurley et al. 2011). In general, teachers feel unsupported by the research-based system and rely on guesswork in regards to working with refugee students (Hurley et al. 2011). This is of great concern being that the refugee children are among the most vulnerable for poor academic performance and are considered at risk (Hurley et al. 2011).
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Interpreters are difficult to schedule, pay for, and find necessary languages needed (Hurley et al. 2011). In New England, the average interpreter costs between $25.00-$75.00 per hour (Hurley et al. 2011). This makes it difficult to use interpreters for frequent meetings between parents and teachers. The number of languages spoken by the people who need interpreters makes it difficult for people to communicate even when interpreters are provided (Hurley et al. 2011). In cases in which interpreters are available, there is sometimes a lack of confidence that the interpreter is being accurate (Hurley et al. 2011). Often, teachers will schedule frequent meetings with other parents, but not those in need of interpreters (Hurley et al. 2011).