Refugee students in the Fort Worth Independent School District will soon have access to on-campus counseling services to help them navigate challenges they face in starting school in a new country.
The district’s school board approved a memorandum of understanding allowing Catholic Charities Fort Worth to place certified counselors on campuses to work with students whose families were resettled in the area.
The change, which will take effect at the beginning of the upcoming school year, builds on a longstanding partnership between Fort Worth ISD and Catholic Charities.
Catholic Charities has offered a range of services to refugee students for years, including tutoring and crisis intervention. The organization also offers support and professional development to teachers in order to help them understand how best to support refugee students. Those services are funded through the Refugee School Impact Program , a grant program run by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement , and come at no cost to the district.