With more than 51,000 unaccompanied Central American children already here, and more expected to come, school officials ask the federal government for a helping hand.

Border kids costs more to educate, about $1,900 per head. Teachers must be bilingual. The students will need health care and psychological services because many arrive sick and traumatized by things they’ve seen and experienced on their journeys north.

Daisy Gonzalez-Diego, communications officer at the Miami-Dade County Public School, said up until now, the school district have relied on their emergency funds to help cover the costs.

“We are asking the federal government to help us with this additional cost,” she said. “We are here to help those children, we have a history of helping them, as we did when the earthquake hit Haiti, and when political problems arose in Cuba.

“We won’t stop providing them an education,” she said. “But we don’t want the (local) taxpayer to pay for it. That’s why we are asking for federal funds.”

She said that just before the end of school in June, her district saw about 300 border kids, coming from Honduras.

Continue reading at Watchdog.org

By Marianela Toledo | Florida Watchdog

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