By: Melissa Frasco
If there is one thing that most adults are missing during the pandemic: it is our separation of spaces. Prior to the pandemic we were all working at work, learning in school, and living in our homes. Due to the spread of new variants these lines of different spaces have become severely blurred. Not only have adults had to adapt, but also children. Jobs once done in person were now done from one’s living room, children’s homes became classrooms, and families became lost in the mix.
This blog will move forward with reflections of my experiences working with mixed status families who were managing school and pandemic life. A mixed status family refers to people in a family unit who have different immigration statuses. For example, a family can have any combination of immigration status but, often parents will be undocumented, and their children will be a citizen as they were born in the United States. Mixed status families present a unique experience because of how immigration laws allocate certain rights to U.S. citizens while denying rights to others.
Moving on from lockdowns, online schooling was no easy task. I worked mostly with single moms and elementary age children. Most of these families followed the pattern of undocumented parents, and children who were U.S. citizens. I had parents who were sent home with school issued ipads or laptops that kids were unable to use because their family was unable to afford internet services at the time. Aside from the important decision of issuing the same technology for each student to take home, signs of inequality would still arise. Other issues that arose included not having fast enough internet for siblings to participate in online classes, children not having their own spaces for classes, and parents were required to supervise their children in online school. This issue came up for many parents of young children, who had jobs without benefits or flexible schedules. Although parents were not in control of their own work schedules at times, leaving a child unattended for online school could present certain repercussions. For younger children in online school who need adult supervision if anything were to go wrong (a freak accident, emergency etc.) and an adult could not respond, a call to ACS (The Administration for Children's Services) would have to placed. A teacher in New York State is a mandated reporter and must report any suspicion of child endangerment. This can lead to families who can be penalized for being in poor positions where they cannot take off work without the risk of losing their job, or they cannot be present for all of their child’s online schooling with the risk of an ACS report being made.
My example here is not to state whether parents should choose between their jobs and kid’s online schooling but rather to present the extreme difficulties mixed status families face. For after online school parents may need to go to work a nightshift or attempt to help children with their homework in a language they do not yet understand. Working with individuals who only spoke Spanish they often felt they did not have a way to communicate with their child’s school. Although their children were often bilingual parents became easily isolated when schools did not have a Spanish option on the phone, the child teacher did not speak Spanish or have a translator present, or inform parents of their right to a translator. Much of my work became advocating with parents and their children for their difficulties with online school and translation services. Most of these parents were navigating their own undocumented status while also their children’s in trying to figure out how to get their child special education services or trying to determine if a free lunch program in school would be seen as a public charge. However, all students have rights to their services in public schools. Undocumented children have only been guaranteed K-12 schooling/resources since 1982 thanks to the Plyer v. Doe case. For many parents they maneuver through different resources with fear that it will one day be used against their immigration status.
Lastly, I would like to focus on the lack of external resources for families. For the 2020 and 2021 school year while most NYC schools took place on online learning due to concerns over Covid-19. In the 2022 school year the option of online learning has not been given to students and families. While some had begun to adapt to online learning this is no longer an option. For the families still figuring out work schedules and school schedules finding a daycare or afterschool program is not simple. The increasingly expensive cost of childcare makes a formal childcare program out of reach for most families. This leads to families having to rely on neighborhood babysitters or family members. Kids who could usually participate in low-cost afterschool programs now no longer have these community-based options. There is so much that schools, parents, and teachers are still learning and experiencing during the Covid-19 pandemic. Still for families I have discussed here the inequalities they experience are amplified by the pandemic causing these families being left in the lurch.
More information on Plyer v. Doe (1982)
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/plyler-v-doe-public-education-immigrant-students