The Crisis at the Border: What Educators Need to Know

These classroom resources and booklists address the topic of family separations, detention centers, and the situation of unaccompanied minors. The resources also include related news headlines from recent events as well as related events in prior years.

_{Note: We have selected a range of resources providing useful information for schools and educators. While some of this material includes advocacy information, Colorín Colorado and our parent organization, public broadcasting station WETA-TV-FM, do not take political positions or participate in political advocacy. In addition, if your students or families are looking for legal advice, we strongly encourage you to collaborate with immigration attorneys or organizations who have the most updated information possible.}

Classroom Resources: Crisis at the Border

Teaching Topics Related to Immigration & Civil Rights

For additional resources and booklists, see our:

Information for Educators

Guide: Supporting Immigrant Students in Schools and Early Childhood Settings

Across the country, educators are looking for ways to support immigrant students and families facing great uncertainty. This comprehensive guide includes more than 50 strategies that educators, staff, and administrators can use to ensure that schools and early childhood settings remain safe, welcoming places for immigrant students and their families.

Addressing Trauma

School Personnel Can Help Students Heal from Trauma (AFT)
Trauma Toolkit: Tools to Support the Learning & Development of Students Experiencing Childhood & Adolescent Trauma (First Book and Maryland State Education Association)
How the Toxic Stress of Family Separation Can Harm a Child (PBS NewsHour)
Family Separations at Border Alarm Child Welfare Experts (AP News)
What Detention And Separation Mean For Kids' Mental Health (NPR)
A Trauma Therapist on the Anguist Immigrant Families Feel When They're Separated (KERA News)
Using a Strengths-Based Approach with ELs: Supporting Students Living with Trauma, Violence and Chronic Stress (article)
Teaching to Strengths: Supporting Students Living with Trauma, Violence, and Chronic Stress (ASCD, 2017)
Tutorial: Recognizing and Addressing Trauma in Infants, Young Children, and Their Families (Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development)
Helping Students Heal Through Love and Trust: A Social Worker's Perspective on Serving Immigrant Youth

The Experiences of Migrant Children and Families

Education of Migrant Children in Shelters: 6 Things to Know (Education Week)
The History Of The Flores Settlement and Its Effects on Immigration (NPR)
For Many Immigrant Families, the Fight for Reunification is Just Beginning (Latino USA)
A boy separated from his mom at the border faces his first Christmas without her (The Washington Post)
What the Nation's Best Teachers Are Saying About U.S. Child Detention Policies (Education Week)

Unaccompanied Minors

Many of the children who are currently in detention centers arrived to this country as unaccompanied minors. Learn more about this unique population from our resource section, the book Enrique's Journey, and author and journalist Sonia Nazario.

Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother (Adapted for Young Adults)

By Sonia Nazario

In 2007, Los Angeles Times reporter Sonia Nazario published Enrique's Journey, a book based on her Pulitzer-Prize winning reports about a teenage boy's harrowing trip north to the U.S. from Honduras to find his mother, who had immigrated to the U.S. eleven years earlier. Sonia has now published a Young Adult version of the compelling and gritty book adapted for readers 12 and older.