Port of Entry

By Mary Ann Zehr

Falls Church, Va.

Ernestina Chavez and David Gonzalez sit expressionless in the waiting area, barely saying a word while their 6-year-old daughter, Michez, fidgets between them.

Recent immigrants from Mexico, they speak only un pocito —a little— English. It hasn’t been easy for them to adjust to life in their new country. They’ve each landed part-time jobs as janitors cleaning office buildings, but they need to be working more hours to earn more money.

And now they have to negotiate yet another intimidating hurdle of American life: registering Michez for classes, seven months into the school year.

Like most language-minority families who wish to enroll their children in Fairfax County, Va., public schools, they’ve brought their daughter to the district’s central student- intake center here. An educational version of Ellis Island, the center—or its satellite site—is the first point of contact between immigrant parents and the 154,000-student district, located in a mostly...