Unaccompanied and Uneducated: The Billions Spent at the Border

[DonViejo]

HHS allocates billions for the care and education of unaccompanied migrant children, but how it’s spent is anyone’s guess.

By Lauren Camera Education ReporterSept. 28, 2018, at 6:00 a.m.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is awarding billions of dollars in government contracts to organizations responsible for educating thousands of detained migrant children under a complicated patchwork of procedures and policies that are subject to limited oversight and even less transparency.

Federal regulations state that children in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services, including unaccompanied migrant children, those who have been separated from their families, and those who are in shelters and other detainment centers with family members, must receive six hours of instruction every weekday, making education the single biggest part of their daily lives. But it's unclear what that education looks like, who is providing it, how much it costs, whether there are proper supports in place for children with disabilities and those working through traumatic experiences, and who, if anyone, is overseeing it all.

U.S. News contacted the 38 organizations awarded the most money in federal contracts to provide shelter and care to young migrants through the Unaccompanied Alien Children Program. Collectively, since 2015, the organizations have won deals worth upward of $3 billion, with at least one securing upward of $1 billion, according to GovTribe.com, an internet database of federal contracts.

The majority of those organizations told U.S. News that they had been directed by the Department of Health and Human Services not to answer any questions related to the care of unaccompanied migrant children and to direct all inquiries to the Office of Refugee Resettlement within HHS.

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https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2018-09-28/unaccompanied-and-uneducated-the-billions-spent-at-the-border