Montgomery County school officials registered 85 new international students representing 35 countries during a one-day foreign-student enrollment session Wednesday. That’s merely a fraction of the more than 19,000 children from other countries that international admissions supervisor Nivea Cordova-Berrios said will attend Montgomery County schools during the 2007-08 school year.
During Wednesday’s one-day enrollment session in Rockville, administrators had to verify student and parent identities and county residency, recommend grade placements and credit transfers, test students’ English skills, ensure students had the proper immunizations and make school assignments.
School officials do not check the immigration status of children or their parents, Berriossaid.
“Our purpose is to expedite the enrollment process and guarantee accuracy,” she said. “This is the point of entry for these students and the first experience parents have when they come to our school system, so we need to ensure it’s a good one. If we don’t do our jobs, a child could fall through the cracks.”
Berrios said one of the trickiest parts of the process can be certifying residency within the county, because many families from other countries initially stay with relatives or friends while setting up their new lives.
“If someone comes here with no lease, how do we know they reside in Montgomery County?” Berrios asked.
One family who’d just moved to Silver Spring from Antigua last week said it was tough to get the three necessary documents together when they’d been in the country only about seven days.
“We’re not quite there yet,” Marlene Jarvis-Myers said of completing all the necessary paperwork so her daughter Danielle can attend seventh grade in Silver Spring. “The schools are so good here, so I guess it makes sense that you have to do a lot.”
