As the school year opens, the child migrant crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border begs the question -- are the roughly 66,000 children who crossed illegally into the United States this year getting enrolled? And how will they affect schools in areas that might not be used to teaching new migrants?
In a HuffPost Live conversation Friday, a three-member panel delved deeper into the issue. Are the children coming into the country being properly educated? And how has the influx of students challenged schools?
"All children are entitled to a public school in the United States. It's our law," Rocio Inclan, Director of Human and Civil Rights for National Education Association, told host Josh Zepps. "From the minute they're here, we are to educate all children, whether they're in the refugee center or whether they're in our public school system or in any schools."
Inclan said about 90 percent of the refugee children have sponsor families across the country.
Claire Sylvan, executive director at the Internationals Network for Public Schools, added that schools need to have systems in place to prepare for the new students, specifically three things: legal help navigating the "complex" system, mental health services, and further development classes for kids whose educations might've been interrupted in war-torn countries.
Watch the rest of the clip above, and catch the full HuffPost Live conversation here. Sign up here for Live Today, HuffPost Live's new morning email that will let you know the newsmakers, celebrities and politicians joining us that day and give you the best clips from the day before!
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