Cost of the migrant crisis: Denver schools tested to their limit

Denver, Colorado, a self-described “sanctuary city,” has cared for more than 41,000 illegal immigrants over the past two years. The new arrivals have drained city resources and led to resentment from locals. The same can be said for other blue cities across the United States. This Washington Examiner series, Cost of the Migrant Crisis , will investigate the strain on cities, schools, and healthcare within Denver in particular. Part Two is about the strain on schools. To read Part One , click here .

DENVER, Colorado — Eagleton Elementary School in northwestern Denver was on the chopping block two years ago, at risk of shutting down due to low enrollment.

The small, one-story brick building tucked into the Villa Park neighborhood had a student population that hovered around the 200-pupil mark, making it an easy pick to top a list of 10 Denver-area public schools slated to close.

Eagleton got a last-minute reprieve and this year saw its enrollment explode — but it has come at a price.

Like so many others in Denver, the school is struggling to accommodate the needs of a wave of migrant children who have shown up in the city and enrolled in its public schools.

Colorado currently sets a base per-pupil funding amount. Then it factors in district size, cost of living, and the number of students living in poverty to determine the actual per-pupil funding amount for each of the 178 school districts in the state.

COST OF THE MIGRANT CRISIS: DENVER’S ROCKY ROAD AS A SANCTUARY CITY

In a typical year, Denver Public Schools enrolls about 500 students who have just moved to the country. This school year, the district averaged 250 students a week, with an estimated cost of $837,000 needed to provide support throughout the school system, said Adrienne Endres, the district's executive director of multilingual education.

DPS spokesman Scott Pribble told the Washington Examiner that 3,807 illegal immigrants have enrolled in Denver this school year. Of those, 692 have left.

In April, Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) signed off on a one-time funding request that will distribute $24 million to public and charter schools affected by the spike in new arrivals. Funding for a school year is typically determined by an October head count. However, hundreds of students arrived after the count, leaving schools stretched thin.

The money will come from the State Education Fund and be distributed using a multitiered funding model, with districts like Denver, which has the largest number of illegal immigrant students enrolled, getting most of the money. Denver is expected to receive up to $5 million.

Unlike neighboring towns and cities that have passed resolutions restricting public services to illegal immigrants, it's a different story when it comes to education.

Under the U.S. Constitution, states are obligated to allow all children living in the United States, regardless of immigration status, access to basic education.

“It doesn’t matter what your opinion is. You have to serve these kids,” said Julie Sugarman, an associate director for K-12 education research at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. “There are civil rights that support these kids, but it does come with real, significant costs.”

At Eagleton, that means staffing up on a limited budget and revamping almost every aspect of how the school runs.

For example, Eagleton had traditionally been a walk-in school, meaning that most families either walked their child to school or dropped them off in their own car.

"When we enrolled the new arrivals from the shelter, we had to add two full school buses to our entry and dismissal process," Principal Janine Dillabaugh told the Washington Examiner. "Once the families moved and found housing, they were signed up for transportation from the homeless network with DPS. Their family received an individual car service. Currently, we have about 70 individuals that come and drop off and pick up students each day. These are contracted car services. ... This new influx of cars at dismissal has been challenging in terms of safety. We have had to create a whole new system to make this a smoother process."

Dillabaugh said the school also lacked simple things such as furniture and had to scramble once students started arriving.

"We didn't have enough stored in the building, so we had to borrow and find desks and chairs across the district," she said.

Stress and mental health concerns were also hurdles staff faced.

"Academically, we were prepared to integrate students into our curriculum and school programming, but when it came to supporting families with the many other areas that they needed support with, we were unequipped," Dillabaugh said. "Helping a family find housing, find a job, find clothing, enroll at a new school once they moved. ... They would come to us because they felt comfortable at our school, but we don't have the capacity to support those needs."

Rob Gould, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, said the pressure has been mounting quickly.

"You're taking an already stressed system and applying more stress to it," he said.

At Ellis Elementary School in southeast Denver, there were 60 more new students than initially expected. Principal Jamie Roybal said some staff members contemplated leaving the profession altogether.

"We're swimming in the deep end," she said. "That's a first grade teacher with 35 newcomers. That's a lot. When she goes home, she's exhausted."

In Aurora, located east of Denver, there have been 2,800 new migrant and refugee children who have enrolled in public school this year.

"We had multiple elementary [schools] that came back after Christmas break with 100 or more kids prior to Christmas break," said Brett Johnson, the chief financial officer for Aurora Public Schools. "So you can imagine walking into a school with 100 or more kids than you had, and imagining the programmatic challenges of adding classrooms, posting for new staff to accommodate those classrooms — those are all real-time additional costs that were unforeseen when we develop our budget and when we established our funded pupil count for the year."

While teachers in Aurora have been slow to call it a crisis, there are signs of strain everywhere. Like Eagleton, classrooms don't have enough seats for children, teachers are overworked, and their class sizes have ballooned. There are also discipline problems and the mental health factor — both for students and teachers.

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"Students will share challenging and difficult stories, things that make an adult cry on the spot," Dillabaugh said. "That has taken a toll on our mental health team, which is why we were thankful to eventually receive support and hire a half-time social worker. However, that is not enough. These families need more support that we can not offer. We also offered staff several trauma-informed practices in order to remind them and offer strategies on how to deal with trauma in the classroom. This was a small step but not enough."