Federal grants are administered by the Virginia Department of Social Services’ Office of New Americans, and support families in the U.S. with refugee visas.
School divisions in Fredericksburg City and Stafford County have received two-year federal grants to support the growing population of Afghan students and their families.
The divisions received notification of the award last month. It comes from the Virginia Department of Social Services’ Office of New Americans and is funded by the Afghan Supplemental Appropriations Act passed by U.S. Congress in 2022.
“It was a wonderful surprise,” said Matt Terry, director of student programs for Fredericksburg City Public Schools. “We are extremely grateful and thrilled about this.”
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Sandra Osborn, chief communications officer for Stafford County Public Schools, said it means a lot for the division to be able to help Afghan families “feel welcomed and secure.”
“Once you come to Stafford schools, you are part of the family, part of the community,” she said.
Stafford is to receive $568,297 in grant funding over two years, and Fredericksburg City is to receive $469,852.
Virginia school divisions were selected to receive the funding based on their total population of enrolled students who are in the United States under refugee visas, specifically those who arrived in the country between July and October of 2021, said Roxanna McCarthy, director of student access and opportunity for Stafford schools.
McCarthy said there are about 127 students in grades K-12 who fit that specification, though she believes there may actually be upwards of 700 students who qualify for support under the provisions of the Afghan Supplemental Appropriations Act.
Even that number doesn’t capture the entire Afghan population in Stafford schools, McCarthy said, which she estimates to be about 1,000 students.
Terry said the Office of New Americans has identified 105 students in Fredericksburg City schools who qualify for support under the grant.
“But we think that number will go up,” he said. “The Office of New Americans is trying to figure out if the grant could be opened up to a bigger group of people.”
The purpose of the grant is to “help families and students settle into the community and culture and help them with resources,” Terry said.
In Fredericksburg, a “large portion” of the grant money will go towards hiring Dari- and Pasho-speaking liaisons to work with Afghan families at both the elementary and secondary level.
“From the student’s perspective, coming to a new country with limited language skills is hard,” Terry said. “It’s not just hard settling in, but it’s hard academically. Older students at the high school also have to come in and meet graduation requirements. So there’s a lot of support they need.”
In Stafford also, the grant money will be used to hire staff, including someone to oversee implementation, and bilingual teachers and family advocates to help with the students’ academic, social, and emotional needs, McCarthy said.
“Assimilation into our schools is a big one,” she said. “School systems vary in Afghanistan. Some girls only went to school up to a certain grade, some kids went to private school and got a strong education, and some went to very rural schools with only one classroom.”
Some of the students need academic support and flexibility because they also work full-time to provide for family members still in Afghanistan.
“I will pull up at different fast-food restaurants and be greeted by [our students] at the window,” Terry said. “Yes, they work hard, and they are willing to work hard at school too.”
Many of the families worked for the United States in Afghanistan and are in the country now for their own safety.
“The trauma they [experienced] is huge,” said McCarthy. “So the grant will help us hire different experts to train teachers in trauma-informed practices.”
Terry said students will benefit from knowing there is someone in the building they can go to and have a conversation with without requiring interpretation.
“I can’t even imagine going to another country and having no one speak the language in my building who is an adult, or a leader,” he said. “That’s our goal—to provide somebody to them that they can go to when they’re having a hard day to ask questions or get support, or to celebrate with them when they’re having a great day.”
“I can’t say enough about the importance of in-person support,” Terry continued.
McCarthy said she is excited about the grant’s potential to help a large number of students feel at home and prepared to be successful in a new country.
“A lot of them have suffered a lot in their countries and are coming here for a safe haven,” she said.
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