(no subject)

[velvetpage]

Okay, scenario is as follows. An American woman marries a Canadian man and moves here illegally. She has a nine-year-old daughter, no ex appears to have any say in this child, and the child is also American. The school board (my employer) has denied the girl the right to attend school because, as an illegal alien, no one will be paying her fees. They want Mom to pay the fees ($9000 approximately) so she can go to school. Mom can't afford it, Stepdad can't even afford to sponsor his new wife properly or adopt the child let alone pay the fees, and the child has been homeschooled for two years as a result. She is not learning, probably because Mom doesn't know what she's doing and doesn't know how to find out. Oh, and the girl is special-needs, too, which means the education that's right for her would probably cost a lot more than the province would pay for to begin with.

[Poll #419060]

Comments

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

From the account in the Spec, I would estimate she's as far behind as the most needy of my students. She's going to need special class placement for a while if she's really going to catch up. She's unlikely to get that, though, because the waiting lists are incredibly long for those placements, and she's not on any lists. Her best bet is to get into a school with a caring LRT, and accept some of the help the family has been offered - such as free tutoring from a retired teacher. With any luck, her issues are more attentional than academic and she'll catch up somewhat before middle school next year.

[anidada.livejournal.com]

It looks like (from what I read today) that local folks have put up the money for her to go to school, and that the head of a local private tutoring company's going to help her get up to speed at no charge. That's very cool -- but I hope that this serves as a cautionary tale and that the situation improves for the other kids who are no doubt in a similar position.