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Access To Education A Challenge For NY Immigrants

This is a picture of a teacher's classroom desk
Adobe Stock

 

New York's attorney general has forced 22 school districts to address complaints that immigrant children were denied or delayed access to school.

An advocate for unaccompanied minors from Central America says he has seen some improvement, but problems still exist.

Walter Barrientos of the advocacy group Make the Road New York says parents are still coming to him with complaints.

The Associated Press has found that in at least 35 districts in 14 states, hundreds of unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have been discouraged from enrolling in schools or pressured into what advocates and attorneys argue are separate but unequal alternative programs.

The federal government has placed nearly 104,000 unaccompanied minors with adult sponsors in communities nationwide since fall 2013. In New York, approximately 10,500 unaccompanied minors have been placed with sponsors.

©2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.