Advocates Urge Lawmakers to Pass Bill Supporting Families of English Learning Students

Advocates for Connecticut’s immigrant community were back at the State Capitol Wednesday, this time pushing for equity in education.

They are urging lawmakers to pass a bill that would provide more resources to families with students learning English as a second language.

“Si se puede!” the group chanted in the Hall of Flags. It means “Yes we can” in Spanish.

Dozens of people rallied in support of House Bill 6211 that would establish an English Language Learner Parent Bill of Rights.

Imelda Barajas and her 15-year-old son Adrian were among the advocates for the legislation.

“I'm here today to fight for bilingual education,” Barajas said told NBC Connecticut in Spanish.

Barajas says that her tenth grade son has special needs and faces additional challenges due to language barriers at his high school in Hartford.

“He is around all personnel, the staff, teachers, they all speak English,” Barajas said.

She is originally from Mexico. As a parent, she says more communication from the school in Spanish is crucial to her participation in Adrian’s education.

“It’s been a problem,” Barajas said. “There's been a lack of interpretation, especially with different letters sent home from the school, and there's never qualified interpreters. This has been a great barrier for me.”

Hartford Public Schools did not return NBC Connecticut’s request for comment.

Like Adrian, there are 45,000 to 50,000 kids across the state that are English learners, according to Make the Road Connecticut, the organization behind the rally.

“This would help all of those ESL students and their parents, and as we see more people and more families coming to Connecticut from other countries, this would have a great impact,” Megan Scharrer, Make the Road CT Hartford community organizer, said.

Democratic State Representatives Antonio Felipe, 130^th District, and Juan Candelaria, 95^th District, are introducing the bill. It was referred to the Joint Committee on Education last week.

If it gets raised, the next step would be a public hearing.

“We don't have anything that says that you have to do these things. We need to make sure this is codified and required for all schools around the state,” Felipe said.

The bill would give parents the right to register their children in public schools regardless of their immigration status.

It calls for translation and interpretation, as well as bilingual programs for students and access to extracurricular activities.

The bill would also require that documents are sent to parents in their native language.

“Not every material is given to all parents in all language that they can speak, namely, Spanish and Arabic, which are really big in our cities,” Felipe said.

The Connecticut State Department of Education issued a statement on the proposal, saying the agency has already implemented several programs to support multilingual learners.

It reads in full:

“The Connecticut State Department of Education believes that high-quality, comprehensive and effective English as a Second Language and multi-lingual education programs are essential to acquire English language proficiency and academic proficiency for students who are English Learners. The agency has implemented multiple programs to support our multilingual learners here in Connecticut to ensure all our students can thrive and become successful members of society.”

A CSDE spokesperson says there are 17 efforts currently underway to support multilingual learners. Among those are opportunities to study culture, biliteracy, guidelines for administrators and web-based learning modules. Those 17 initiatives are listed here.

Barajas said anything that helps her play a role in her son’s schooling is a cause that she stands behind.

“As a mom, I want to have a voice for my child's education,” she said.