Influx of migrant children tests preparedness of New York schools

Kimberly Carchipulla wheels a baby stroller as her son, wearing cap, and another boy wait for a bus. “What I want for him is a future,” Kimberly Carchipulla said in Spanish of her son, one of nearly 800,000 New York City public school students who headed off to class Thursday for their first day of the new school year. That is what school officials want too, as the city’s classrooms work to accommodate nearly 20,000 migrant children newly arrived in the U.S. — a number that could swell as record numbers of families cross the border from Mexico in hopes of gaining asylum. Several major U.S. cities have struggled with an influx of many thousands of asylum seekers who have filled up homeless shelters after entering the U.S. New York City’s shelter system has been especially overwhelmed, but Mayor Eric Adams has sought to reassure parents and community groups that the city’s nearly 1,900 schools — which have a long track record of welcoming immigrants with limited English skills — are well-prepared to welcome migrant children into classrooms. “Any city would struggle to receive the large number of children that are coming at one time, who are also learning English, as well as living in temporary housing or in temporary shelters,” said Natasha Quiroga, the director of education policy at the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs.