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We have just moved!
Address:
10914 Georgia Ave. (Back Entrance)
Wheaton, MD 20902
Phone: (301) 754-1801
Fax: (301) 754-1803
We have just moved!
Address:
10914 Georgia Ave. (Back Entrance)
Wheaton, MD 20902
Phone: (301) 754-1801
Fax: (301) 754-1803
Centro Familia was founded in 1998 by Pilar Torres and Nancy Navarro to respond to a dire, but “invisible” crisis in our community that is crippling our school system and is keeping many Latino children and families.
A study of more than 8,200 kindergarten students in Montgomery County Public Schools in the year 2002 confirmed the widely-held view that children who are young, impoverished, and learning English as a second language have significantly weaker literacy skills upon entering kindergarten, than children who do not share these characteristics.(1) A follow-up article in the Washington Post highlighted the shocking and sad fact the 35% of children in ESOL were born in the USA. This gap in achievement is a result of poverty, inattention, and linguistic isolation. The parents of these children work several jobs, have little or no education, and have difficulty finding adequate childcare. Immigration severs extensive family ties and children are left with neighbors that at best provide “babysitting”. These children are described by teachers as “alingual.” They are illiterate in both languages and are severely delayed in their language development in both their native language and in English, and they are U.S. citizens!
CASA of Maryland conducted a community survey of 37 buildings in Long Branch, a neighborhood of the Washington Metropolitan Area in Montgomery County, where many new immigrants live. The results show that there are at least 2-3 apartments being used in each building for unregulated childcare. Someone in each of these apartments is caring for 2-4 preschool age children, with an additional 2-3 school-age children attending after school. Based on this information, CASA estimates that there are somewhere between 300-500 children in unregulated childcare arrangements, just in this small area. Imagine the scope of the network of unregulated care given that Montgomery County has a population of at least 92, 000 Latinos, representing over 50% of the Latino community of Maryland.
1. Early Reading Skills of Kindergarten Children in the Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery County Public Schools Office of Shared Accountability, March 2001.