Author Description

An exploratory study of the refugees in the Toronto (Ontario, Canada) public school system examined: (1) their situation, including their numbers and distributions, countries of origin, demographic characteristics, and challenges and needs at school; (2) how teachers and other school staff deal with the situation, and the kinds of difficulties they have encountered; and (3) ways to help teachers, schools and the school system meet the academic, social, and emotional needs of newly arrived refugees. Nineteen bilingual interviewers interviewed 135 refugee students and 60 refugee parents representing 7 different language groups. Data from student registration files, focus groups, and observations of Local School Team meetings supplemented the interviews to give a picture of the refugee population that, by late 1994, made up almost 10 percent of the city's public school student population. In some inner-city schools, refugees constituted as much as a quarter of the population. Most refugee students were adolescents or young adults, but there were nearly 3,000 refugee children in the Toronto schools in 1994. These students come from very diverse backgrounds, and their needs are complicated by social and emotional factors associated with being refugees. Many are in a disadvantaged position academically. School staff in general do not feel adequately prepared to help these students. The final chapter of this report offers suggestions for providing better information for school staff and for refugees and their families, for developing whole-school approaches to refugee needs, and for making better use of the facilities and services now available. Seven appendixes contain interview and focus group protocols and an observation guide. (Contains 11 figures, 4 tables, and 40 references.) (SLD).