Trend Watch: Budget Cuts Mean Loss of Bilingual-Parent Liaisons
Education

Trend Watch: Budget Cuts Mean Loss of Bilingual-Parent Liaisons

By Mary Ann Zehr — July 08, 2009 1 min read
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With budget cuts, the Prince George’s County school system in Maryland is laying off some of its bilingual-parent liaisons, according to a story published in the Washington Post today. The article says that in 2006, Prince George’s officials made sure that each of the county’s 200 schools had a liaison in an effort to boost parental involvement. (Hat tip to This Week in Education.)

I’ve met parent liaisons in various schools across the country, and I’ve observed that they can play an important role in helping immigrant parents understand and navigate school systems.

Are any other school systems finding, too, that they are losing parent liaisons with budget cuts?

Mary Ann Zehr
Mary Ann Zehr was an assistant editor for Education Week. Her beats included English-language learners, bilingual education, immigrants, dropouts, achievement-gap issues, and charter and private schools. She is the author of the blog Learning the Language.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Learning the Language blog.