The Multilingual Enrollment and Support Center opened for multilingual families in Baltimore City Schools in July of 2019. Our center serves as a hub for families to enroll in City Schools, explore school choice options, request transfers and access information surrounding community resources for immigrant and refugee families.
We have seen over 1300 families since July, and try to meet the needs of each and every student that comes to our office. We would like to provide back packs with school supplies to students that have recently arrived. Many of our students have recently been released from detention centers and only have the clothes they were released with, and they are often releases to distant family members or friends of their family that are suddenly taking on the cost of an additional child.
By providing a backpack stocked with basic school supplies, we are able to support our students and families as they begin their journey in Baltimore. School supplies are exponentially more expensive during the school year than they are during the "back to school sales", and supplies can be the barrier between a student starting school tomorrow or a few weeks from now when the family can afford supplies, backpacks, and uniforms. We have been able to do this in the past through donated items, but we are now out of donations and we will have another rush of students beginning in January when the Central American school year ends. We would like to be ready to provide this small but valuable resource to families when they arrive.