Massachusetts welcomed migrant families with open arms. But is the state prepared to teach their children?

The Twilight Education Club is a non-profit working to break down the barriers – transportation, child care and cost – that typically prevent the economically disadvantaged from accessing social services such as language classes. While the Twilight program is specifically geared toward the needs of the parents - getting better jobs and securing greater stability - the long-term focus remains on creating future opportunities for their children.

The Migrant Education Program, which offers educational and social services to migrant worker families in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, is growing in popularity among the valley’s migrant worker population, and has recently begun to focus on getting migrant students geared up for college .

In a global economy, helping students succeed means offering them the opportunity to become multilingual. States such as Utah, Indiana, and Delaware have stepped up their efforts with immersion programs for elementary students.

A nonprofit organization, the Internationals Network for Public Schools, delivers a first-class education to the children of illegal immigrants, helping to break the cycle of poverty and provide them a path to advance in life.

Flare Initiative provides literacy education for students enrolled in Islamic schools, with lessons on the English alphabet, proper sentence construction, and effective communication skills offered in the evenings to avoid disrupting students’ Qur’anic studies. Participants say the program has given them newfound confidence to pursue future careers that require English language proficiency.

To help preserve important cultural knowledge in the face of genocide, Rohingya Project digitized and designed a font for the Hanifi Rohingya alphabet, which was developed in the 1980s. The script has now been released as a Unicode and is taught to displaced Rohingya around the world in refugee camps, classrooms, Zoom meetings, and WhatsApp groups.

The Parent Educator Academy provides training in Spanish and English to help Latino parents in Arizona navigate a complex education system and advocate for their children at school. The program is now in its fifth cohort and has served parents from more than 30 schools in three counties.

Los Angeles Community Colleges are now offering subject-matter courses taught in students’ native languages, including Spanish, Russian, and Korean. The tuition-free vocational classes allow students to earn certificates in a trade or work toward a GED, all while learning in the language they’re most comfortable speaking.

A collaboration between the Nigerian government and Maple Leaf Early Years Foundation allows roughly 100 children in a camp for people who have been displaced to attend school for free. Though the school can't enroll all the local children who wish to attend, it provides free meals, language instruction, and classes on hygiene that have helped students improve their health and English speaking abilities.

The Almajiranci system has been criticized for not integrating Western education and English lessons. To solve the issue, Malam Na’ibi, who owns an Almajiri school, started homeschooling around 30 students on subjects like math and English. These students can’t afford to attend schools that integrate Western education. “I just want to be able to speak the English language. I have never missed a class since we started.” Almajiranci school experts say the homeschooling method employed by Malam Na’ibi is exemplary of inclusive educational reforms that need to happen with the wider Almajiranci school system.