Children in migrant and other families staying at the temporary overnight shelter at the Registry of Deeds building in East Cambridge will be able to enroll in Cambridge Public Schools starting this week, a change from the policy announced when the shelter was opened Dec. 22. The apparent reason: A federal law guarantees school enrollment for homeless children regardless of their circumstances.
Despite the law, state and local officials said when the shelter opened that school-age children staying there would be registered in school only when they were transferred to more permanent housing such as state emergency assistance shelters. Now, with transfers lagging, according to the city, Cambridge schools are starting to register and enroll school-age kids. Sujata Wycoff, Cambridge Public Schools spokeswoman, said in an email late Monday: “Our student registration center, district and building leaders, educators and support staff have created a seamless process to ensure we are enrolling students quickly and meeting their needs while creating a welcoming environment.”
Wycoff didn’t immediately answer when asked how the school system would deal with the fact that families are at the shelter only between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. and have been spending the day at a state “welcome center” where migrants can get help obtaining longer-term housing and job permits and meeting other needs.
Officials expected rapid turnover when the shelter opened, with families leaving within a few days. The building is an “overflow” shelter set up to handle the recent surge of migrants that has overwhelmed the state’s shelter capacity, as well as families homeless for other reasons.
“Families who are provided with shelter at the Cambridge overflow site are sheltered there temporarily as they await placement into longer-term emergency assistance shelter,” a spokesperson for the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said in an email Tuesday. “School-aged children are enrolled into the school districts in the communities in which they receive EA shelter.”
But turnover has not been rapid. After Cambridge Day asked attorneys who specialize in children’s rights about delaying school enrollment, the lawyers contacted the city’s point person for the shelter, housing liaison Maura Pensak, on Friday. They quoted her as saying the city, the state, the company operating the shelter and others “‘have been discussing and monitoring this situation since day one.’”
Those involved wanted to avoid starting kids in one school if they would be transferring to a different housing site in a few days, but found that transfers were taking longer than expected. Therefore the city plans to start school registration and enrollment this week, the attorneys quoted Pensak as saying.
Wycoff’s email did not say clearly when the schools began enrolling children living in the shelter. She mentioned the federal law, the McKinney-Vento Act, only to say that registration of kids under the act “is a routine matter for Cambridge Public Schools, so we do not anticipate a significant disruption to our operations.”
Asked how the state took the federal law into account when adopting its policy, a spokesperson for the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities reiterated that the overflow shelters are temporary but added that the state works to enroll children in school as quickly as possible. The federal law requires that homeless children who move after initially registering in school get transportation to their original school if desired.
As of mid-January, there were 57 families with 196 individuals staying at the 200-bed shelter in Cambridge, according to the state. The shelter provides breakfast and dinner as well as snacks. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has volunteered to provide shower facilities to shelter residents, officials said at a community meeting held via Zoom on Dec. 28.
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This is heartwarming to see. As a sanctuary city, Cambridge can and should take in many more. I think 10-15k are coming over the border daily, so please get your spare rooms ready. Elizabeth Warren, where are you?
Marc McGovern, thank you for your principled stand a few years back: ““I am proud that Cambridge is a sanctuary city. … Trump is a schoolyard bully who tries to intimidate and threaten people. I’m not intimidated and if asylum seekers find their way to Cambridge, we’ll welcome them.” https://www.axios.com/2019/04/13/what-theyre-saying-mayors-sanctuary-cities-welcome-trumps-latest-immigration-idea