<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>I will gladly draft an email in support of this legislation. I work with undocumented minors and I have seen the tremendous devastation of a 20 year old man being sent 'home' to El Salvador after he had been taken to this country by his parents when he was 10 or 12 years old. One thing that troubles me is the high school graduation requirement. Many of these families were refugee families and the children had interrupted schooling at best due to their country's political situation, and they do not succeed in U. S schools. Often times they must work to help support the family and the lack of native language literacy skills makes the acquisition of CALP difficult in the best of circumstances.
<BR> I hope that this facet of the bill will be modified if enough people point out this issue.
<BR>Best,
<BR>Margo DelliCarpini
<BR>ESL Coordinator
<BR>REROUT/EL/CIVICS Eastern Suffolk BOCES, NY
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