"Children Immigrants" An Impending Issue For Miami-Dade Schools
MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- The crisis of children crossing the border without their parents and filling up shelters in Miami-Dade county is becoming an impending issue in Florida's public school system.
The issue was addressed at a Miami-Dade County School Board meeting on Wednesday, knowing those kids would end up in the school system.
"We have received about 300 students from Honduras over the past few months so recognizing the challenge, that crisis, we're asking federal got to intervene," said Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
Carvalho asked the board for support to request funds from the federal government for those children, known as unaccompanied children immigrants, primarily from Central America to cover their costs in school.
The board will request $1,950 per year per child in addition to what the state already puts in.
Local representatives are in full support of the move.
"I think we've seen this before .. with the rafter crisis and Haitian community.. another wave where we having a wave of immigrants and the super is doing the right thing," said State Representative Manny Diaz.
"It' unsustainable and unless the feds step in, we are going to find ourselves in a very big crisis," said State Representative Jose Felix Diaz
In the past nine months 50,000 unaccompanied children immigrants have crossed our borders with smugglers who know they can cash in on kids who receive much more lenient consideration at the border. The children are in Texas, California, Arizona and in three local South Florida shelters.
Click Here to watch Cyntia Demos' report.
Superintendent Carvalho said he is "modestly confident" that they will get the funding.
School starts in two months with unaccompanied children immigrants in Miami-Dade's school system but Superintendent Carvalho says he hopes to maybe see funding within the next 12 months.
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