The Power of Partnerships and Advocacy: High School Enrollment for Refugee Families

BY Ari Schutter

Preparing for the transition from middle school to high school can be intimidating. School selection, course enrollment, orientation, health forms, not to mention tests and applications for Selective Enrollment Schools, are just some of the hurdles families face when preparing to send their child to high school. For refugee students and parents these hurdles are even greater. 

FORA aims to help refugee families leap over these hurdles through our Family School Partnership program (FSP). 

According to Syeda Siddiqua, FORA FSP Officer from 2023 until Sept. 2025, the department acts as a liaison between the families and the schools, helping guide families through the high school enrollment to process. 

“Navigating the school system is pretty hard for any and most immigrant parents, let alone refugee parents that have no formal education,” she said. “So that’s where FSP comes in with things like registration for schools, applying for schools and normal day to day interactions with teachers.” 

Siddiqua began her work with the FSP program as the only team member, but now works alongside three other staff members. She currently specializes in high school registration and navigating the high school process, working closely with students and parents to ensure they have the resources they need to succeed. 

Siddiqua said language barriers and lack of translation services are some of the largest barriers within the high school registration process.

 “If you go to school as a parent with limited English fluency, the schools won’t have a translator ready,” she said. “The alternative for schools is to try to explain things using broken sentences, but then parents only get half of  the information.” 

While FORA has translating services such as Boost Lingo, an app that allows you to call a person in real time for translating, schools don’t tend to have these resources readily available. 

The FSP team members will bring resources like these to make communication easier for parents, students and school staff. 

But even without language barriers, many refugee parents must navigate an unfamiliar educational system without support. For communities like the Rohingya, access to education has been denied for multiple generations, meaning it’s possible students’ parents haven’t stepped into a school before arriving in the U.S either. The 1982 Citizenship Law formally denied all Rohingya living in Burma citizenship, barring their access to Burmese schools. 

FSP strives to not only advocate for students in their classroom but also guide families how to advocate for their children themselves. 

“That’s what we hope to accomplish long term, to teach parents to learn to advocate for themselves and their kids,” Siddiqua said. 

According to Siddiqua, collaborative learning and partnership with students’ parents is an extremely important part of the high school registration process. 

“I always make it a point to get the parents and students involved in the whole process,” she said. “I don’t just do it for them. And then when it comes to registering for classes, the students are involved in that.”

This collaboration allows parents and students to get first hand experience with the various elements of the school system. 

The work of the FSP program extends far beyond the walls of FORA. FSP team members attend school meetings, orientations and parent teacher conferences. They do not limit the issues they tackle on behalf of students and parents. Some common subjects they tackle include grades, attendance, and scheduling, but they also step in when needed in cases of bullying or harassment.  

From June to Sept. 2025, the FSP team completed 379 meetings with parents, fifty meetings with parents and schools and twenty-eight meetings between FSP staff and Chicago Public schools. 

“FORA is an after school tutoring program, but we do a lot more than that,” Siddiqua said. “Even when something is not our job, it becomes our job because we care about these kids so much.” 

This school year, seven eighth graders at FORA will complete the high school registration process. 

Yasmeen Al-Resheq, FORA’s Director of FSP, said the team is excited to work with parents and students to navigate the high school enrollment process. 

“There are so many great options for students to choose from and our team is dedicated not only to finding the best program, but to finding the best program for every student.”