Increase in migrant students learning English tests Miamidade public schools

MIAMI – The country’s third largest school district is absorbing thousands of new students surpassing, in some cases, figures from previous year amid an ongoing, historic migrant surge in South Florida.

For Miami-dade Public Schools, migrants from Cuba make up the largest increase in enrollment, according to newly released figures.

“The schools have capacity and we’re able to provide support,” said Miami-dade Schools Superintendent Jose Dotres, who described a three-tier system for dealing with the influx and added the district is only using tier one.

As of Jan. 10, the school district has absorbed 7,587 students of Cuban origin this school year. Compared to last school year, that is more than half the amount when records show 2,977 students of Cuban origin were enrolled in schools.

“We’ve been through this before,” Dotres said of previous migration waves that have changed and shaped Miami’s history.

Dotres himself enrolled in Miami-dade Public Schools as a Cuban migrant when he was a boy.

“I identify with those kids,” he said. Dotres pointed out a significant number of newly arrived students are enrolling at the middle and high school level so given their age, schools have to really focus on making sure they quickly learn English.

“These students are arriving and attending schools predominantly in the Hialeah area,” Dotres said, but he pointed out demographics in other areas, like Allapattah, are also shifting.

Dotres believes it’s possibly because those areas are more economical, given the ongoing housing crisis in South Florida, specifically in Miami-dade County. His staff pointed to numbers from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, as those are the four countries with significant migration and migrants from those countries now qualify for a new immigration policy under President Joe Biden.