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NORWALK — “A one-stop shop,” “a one shot deal,” “a hub:” this is how officials describe Norwalk’s new Family Center. This is the place to find the answers for registering a new student into the district, visiting departments that are lined up step-by-step in one single building.
The school district opened its Family Center in the Human Services Council building at 1 Park St. last year with the goal of improving and streamlining the process for new students. Previously, families bounced from City Hall to a school to departments in other places to meet all requirements and file every bit of paperwork.
School officials promoted the Family Center as an answer to disorganization and a valuable resource for families. Since opening on May 10, the center has met these high hopes, said Frances Saez. She sees the whole process in action because she is the education administrator for multilingual learners and Family Center supervisor.
“(The) goal was to create a hub of all these services like the Family Center, where families just have to go to one place, a one shot deal where they get the services they need,” Saez said.
According to data from the Family Center, it is achieving the goal, helping 1,909 families since July.
“The Family Center services and the registration process has really, really been beneficial to the families," Saez said.
Going the 'extra mile' to help families
Many different departments are housed within the building, providing a sort of assembly-line effect to move from one room to the next, visiting the necessary departments. The Family Center includes a department of registration, early childhood education, transportation, specialized learning, food services, multilingual learning, health services, and technology. Additional services include workshops for families and a food pantry that began in November.
Norwalk Public Schools, according to data from Jan 1, includes over 11,500 students, and 20 percent of students across the district are multilingual learners. This significant population of English learners highlights the importance of a space where everyone feels comfortable and can communicate. The population of the school system is projected to continue growing in each future year.
Saez explained that the center aims to give families the tools to advocate for themselves and to ensure that children have their academic and social needs met as they enter school. When a family walks through the doors with a new student, they are assigned to a representative who can register them. The center handles new students for all 22 schools in the district, ranging from 3-year-olds to high schoolers. If the family prepared the required paperwork and everything proceeds smoothly, Saez said a child could be in school in as little as two days.
Juana Rodriguez is one of the Family Center representatives and loves helping the families. “We all go the extra mile to help the families,” Rodriguez said. “Anything they need, and even things that we don't have here. We search it on the internet, we make phone calls, anything, anything. Even the families, they come back after the registration just for help.”
She explained that especially families who do not speak English will return to the center for help with situations such as a letter from a landlord that they need someone to translate. “I just love my job,” she continued. “I love what I do. And this is an amazing place.”
The center also checks the student’s immunization and other health records, which can vary based upon where the student lived. These medical documents are approved by the center’s health aids, right down the hall from the registration. The representatives mentioned that the proximity to the other departments is a definite perk of the Family Center because they can easily talk to one another to solve issues that may have taken days previously.
A student may need a test to assess English proficiency, which is conducted at the center, if they do not speak English at home. Nearly all of the representatives are bilingual, so parents who speak Spanish can communicate easily. Haitian Creole is also available. The assessment indicates whether the student should start school with multilingual learner instruction or English instruction. Similarly, the center administers tests to place students based on their math level.
If families have questions regarding transportation or need bus passes, they can travel upstairs to the transportation office, which handles all schools and over 150 bus routes. Next door to transportation is the food services office, led by Jill Kress, the food services liaison. All students in the district currently receive free breakfast and lunch. This department can help families who need assistance with food access on a longer-term basis than the center’s pantry, and it can also refer families to resources for housing and other accommodations. The school system expedites children who are experiencing homelessness so that they can have a normal, stable environment at school with free meals.
Violet Reyes, the ombudsperson for specialized learning, can be found upstairs as well. She supports families who do not know where to start with specialized instruction needs or what they can request as accommodations. Reyes works with resources for mental health needs as well. She supports parents in navigating and understanding the system and attends meetings, if asked, as a liaison and support person.
'Comfortable' environment
Families felt intimidated by the previous process, said Taylor Da Silva, an assistant education administrator for multilingual learners. When they came to City Hall through the old system, producing identification and passing through security made many families uncomfortable. The Family Center, Da Silva said, is a completely different atmosphere. “They come in, they're greeted in multiple languages,” she said.
“And they just feel all students are included here. All students and their families are included here. They feel that there is a lot of support with all the different resources that we house. The different workshops we provide. We've really made this a one stop shop inclusive to everybody in the entire district and the community.”
The center recently had a holiday event, and Da Silva said that the visible reactions of the families displayed that the center has made a difference.”The families walking in here, their faces lit up, she said.
“They felt very comfortable to be here. When you feel comfortable, you ask more questions, you want more support, you feel comfortable to pick up a shopping bag and grab food, you feel comfortable asking those hard questions and getting those resources that the students really deserve and need.”
To continue improving the services she can offer, Saez is looking toward the future. The food pantry and workshops are two enhancements already in action. Next, she’d like to have a full clinic at the center where students could receive the vaccines they need, and she is developing an internship program for high school students to integrate into their prospective career.
Contact Faith Marnecheck at faith.marnecheck@hearstmediact.com