A Toolkit to Support Wisconsin School Districts
Each year, children and families from around the globe enroll in Wisconsin public schools after immigrating to and resettling in our state. Many of these children and families are refugees who have fled their home countries for a variety of reasons, including persecution, violence, or natural disasters. Students from immigrant and refugee families bring a wealth of assets that benefit their classmates, schools, and communities, as well as themselves. At the same time, students from immigrant and refugee families may face unique challenges related to language, interrupted schooling, trauma, and more. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has developed this toolkit to support school leaders around the state as they welcome, enroll, serve, and embrace students and families who are immigrants and refugees.
The toolkit is broken into three sections: Student Enrollment and Registration, Meeting Immediate Needs of Immigrant and Refugee Students and Families, and Screening, Identifying, and Connecting Students to Supports and Services. The toolkit is also available in its entirety as an Adobe pdf document.
Purpose and Audience
Local education agencies (LEAs) must provide all students with a free public education, regardless of immigration or refugee status, and the resources within the toolkit are intended to support school districts in meeting these obligations. The toolkit reviews effective strategies and resources designed to support leadership at the district and school levels in delivering an equitable and excellent education to all students.
In particular, the toolkit is intended to:
- Refresh and remind school and district leaders of key federal and state laws and regulations, civil rights, and other relevant case law, as well as other requirements.
- Provide a quick reference for tools and resources designed for districts, schools, and educators to support students from immigrant and refugee families as they resettle into local communities and school districts.
- Share best practices and considerations around family engagement to ensure immigrant and refugee families are involved in meaningful ways and are active partners in key educational decisions about their children. Such collaborative partnering is critical to students’ academic and social-emotional success.
- Provide school and district leaders with best practices and considerations for welcoming and serving children from immigrant and refugee families over the immediate-, short-, and long-term. DPI will continue to work with schools and families to build these resources and enrich the toolkit over time.
- Support districts in their pursuit of creating learning environments that are culturally and linguistically responsive and centered in equity.
Guiding Principles and Mindsets
As state and local educational agencies, it is our legal obligation to provide all students, regardless of immigration or refugee status, with a free public education and to ensure all students access the programs and services to which they are entitled. In order for all students to reach their full potential, we must work together to welcome and embrace all students and families; recognize and foster the unique gifts, assets, and talents they bring to our schools and communities; and support them in any way possible as we strive to ensure each child receives an excellent and equitable Wisconsin education.
In that spirit, DPI offers the following guiding principles and mindsets to consider when welcoming and serving children and families who are immigrants and refugees.
Guiding Principles
Center Equity
To meet the needs of all students, begin with those whose needs are most likely to be overlooked or misunderstood. By keeping their needs central, you can design systems, processes, and environments that support all students. Meeting the needs of every student is the work, not something extra.
Cultivate Welcoming and Belonging
Embrace our families and communities for who they are and center their cultures, languages, and ways of being in your school community. Creating a school community where all are seen, heard, and valued for who they really are builds a climate of trust and serves as a great foundation for anything you want to build together. Actively invite and seek to understand families’ and students’ perspectives, and engage them in contributing to significant initiatives and decisions.
Lead with an Asset Mindset
Seek, recognize, and rely on the strengths of your students, families, and communities. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn from the intelligent, compassionate, and innovative ways in which they have created practices, organizations, and spaces to help them thrive.
Support Children in Becoming Self-Sustaining Lifelong Learners
To tap into your students’ innate curiosity, make learning meaningful. Engage with students’ real dilemmas and community issues, and invite them to ask deeper questions as much as to seek answers. By learning about and from them, you, in turn, show them your own life-long love of learning.
These guiding principles and mindsets complement DPI’s Guiding Principles for Teaching and Learning, Guiding Principles for Social and Emotional Learning, and Model to Inform Culturally-Responsive Practice.