For my final research project, I researched the supports that are available for incoming refugee students in Chicago Public Schools, including the types of supports and whether they are available from schools. I wanted to research this topic because I am currently student teaching in a classroom in a Chicago Public School with refugee students. We have five refugee students in the classroom from Venezuela who immigrated to Chicago to escape from difficult political situations in their home country. These students have faced many challenges throughout their immigration experience and have come to the US knowing little about the country and what their lives in Chicago would look like. Since many refugee students enter the country, Chicago, and CPS with all these confusions and knowing little about their new community, I wanted to make a resource for these students and their families that families could use to guide their experiences. I also wanted to research these supports to learn more about the students I have in my classroom and what they most likely were researching when they came to the United States. In this way, the purpose of my final project is two-fold: a desire to understand my own refugee students and a desire to help and support them and their families.

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In beginning my research, I started with looking at what I was familiar with: the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Website. I found that CPS has many academic programs and supports for refugee students. First, CPS has two types of bilingual education program, one intended for schools with lower numbers of bilingual students (Transitional Programs of Instruction Programs) and one intended for schools with higher numbers of bilingual students (Transitional Bilingual Education Programs) (Chicago Public Schools 2023). Additionally, some CPS schools also have Dual Language Education (DLE) Programs which support native-English speakers and English Language Leaners (ELLs) with instruction in both English and another language. Finally, the CPS website also includes many resources for families to learn about these programs, learn how they can enroll in these programs (or get involved by the school), and contact information for CPS officials.

In addition to academic supports for refugee students, CPS also provides many opportunities for CPS refugee families to build community with other refugee families and other CPS community members.  First, Bilingual Advisory Committees (BACs) are “meetings for parents and community members to address issues relating to the education of English Language Learners (ELLs) in TBE or TBI instructional contexts” (Chicago Public Schools 2023). Next, Chicago Multilingual Parent Councils (CMPCs) are used “to advise the district on the development, implementation, and evaluation of bilingual education (including TBE, TBI, BAC, and other programs)” (Chicago Public Schools 2023). Finally, Parent University is “a CPS program that provides learning experience to empower families to support their student's academic success and to assist parents/guardians in furthering their own education and developing new skills” (Chicago Public Schools 2023). All these programs are available for many multilingual parents but give refugee parents an opportunity to meet more community members in CPS. Information about these programs is plentiful on the CPS website.

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I learned in my research that CPS has a variety of academic supports for refugee and multilingual learners entering their schools. Although this is a very positive aspect of CPS, one area I felt was missing from their support system is supports for non-academic needs, such as social, emotional, and other real-life issues refugees face. Therefore, I decided to do further research to fill in these gaps with other organizations in Chicago that so support these needs. To do so, I researched organizations in Chicago who support refugee students and their families to adjust to their new life in Chicago. Four organizations came up primarily in my various searches: RefugeeOne, World Relief, CAIR-Chicago, and Black Men United. Each of these organizations has the goal of helping those escaping poverty, war, and other terrors with community, local supports. Each one is accessible to refugees in Chicago and provides contact methods in how to do so. Researching these organizations helped me to fill in the gap between academic support and social, emotional, and other real-life support needs. I was able to support the work in these organizations and all of my research with evidence from peer-reviewed, academic articles.