chinese Refugee Assistance Task Force conducted a quick telephone survey of sixteen selected school districts in seven States: California, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania. The purpose of the survey was: (1) To determine how widely Indochinese refugee children are dispersed by schools within school districts and (2) To determine, if possible, what additional costs for education are actually incurred by school districts enrolling elementary and secondary school age Indochinese refugee children.

DATA BASE BY STATE AND SCHOOL DISTRICT

Seven States were selected for the survey. Sixty school districts in these seven States had submitted applications to the Office of Education (before November 6) for supplemental grants to assist with the education of elementary and secondary school age children enrolled in their schools.

An examination of these applications indicates that 55 percent of the school districts which submitted applications have fewer than 11 refugee children enrolled in their schools. See Chart A. Another 27 percent of the school districts enrolled between 11 and 20 refugee children. At the upper end of the scale, seven percent of the school districts enrolled more than 100 refugee children. This information is consistent with that obtained earlier for all applications received by OE.

Over 80 percent of the school districts submitting applications have fewer than 21 refugee children enrolled in schools in their district. Sixteen school districts in the seven States were selected for the telephone survey.

SURVEY STRATEGY

The school district enrolling the largest number of refugee children in each State and one or two additional school districts in the State which submitted applications to OE were called by members of the Task Force. School district personnel were asked to report the number of refugee children enrolled by school in the district.

SURVEY RESULTS

The information obtained is summarized in Chart B. This chart provides information concerning the location of refugee children in the 16 school districts. (1) About one school out of every three (305 out of 1,076) enrolled one or more refugee children.

(2) About two tenths of one percent of the children enrolled in these 16 school districts are Indochinese refugees.

(3) About 87 percent of the schools enrolling refugee children in these 16 school districts had fewer than 11 refugee children.

This information shows that refugee children are widely dispersed in schools within these 16 school districts. Six out of every seven schools which enroll refugees have fewer than 11 refugee children.

SUPPLEMENTAL COSTS OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

School districts had difficulty in reporting either the actual or the estimated costs of special instructional materials needed for refugee children which were above and beyond the cost of instructional materials used for other children in their schools. The estimates ranged from $20 to $80 per pupil for supplemental materials with the average cost being about $48 per refugee.

The additional cost of providing special English as a second language materials and other special instructional materials for refugee children as reported amounts to approximately $48 per child.

COST OF ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL

There was great variability in the number of additional personnel who had been employed by the school district or who would be employed when Federal funds were received. Some school districts reported they would not employ any additional personnel. One school district already had a ESL program for Koreans who had enrolled in school last year so no additional staff was needed. Another school had a bilingual program in operation in Cantonese. Eighty of the 82

Vietnamese children enrolled in this school spoke Cantonese, so additional costs would be minimal. It appears, however, that one full time staff member will be employed in these 16 districts for every 10 to 15 children enrolled in the district. Some districts plan to employ bilingual aides, others plan to employ ESL teachers or language specialists. When all estimated personnel costs are examined, an average cost of $485 per pupil is obtained for the addition of personnel attributed to the enrollment of refugee children in these 16 school districts.

A rough estimate of $185 per refugee child appears to be the average cost of personnel added in these 16 school districts to provide instruction for Indochinese refugee children.

OTHER COSTS

Only one of the 16 school districts had to provide additional classroom space, and this district acquired a portable classroom. Two of the school districts reported additional transportation costs which were attributable to the enrollment of refugee children.

Because of the wide dispersion of children in schools within these 16 school districts, the cost of transportation and of classroom space to provide for Indochinese refugee children appears to be negligible.

CONCLUSION

Based upon this non-scientific telephone survey of 16 school districts in seven States Indochinese refugee children were found to be widely dispersed among schools within each district. Refugees were enrolled in one out of every three schools, but the refugee enrollment in each school ranged from one to 10 children in 87 percent of the schools in which refugees were enrolled. The estimated additional cost of providing instruction to Indochinese refugee children amounted to $533 per child. Of this amount $485 is required to pay for additional staff members and $48 is required for additional materials.

CHART A.-DISTRIBUTION OF REFUGEE CHILDREN BY SCHOOL DISTRICTS

Mr. QUIE. Are we taking this bill up in this committee or is Judiciary going to?

Chairman PERKINS. We are taking it up in this committee. Any further questions? The Chair hears none.

Thank you very much, Commissioner. You have been very helpful. The next witness is Congressman Hannaford. He has been waiting for quite a while. Come around, Congressman.

[Information requested from Ms. Taft follows:]

Hon. CARL D. PERKINS,

INTERAGENCY TASK FORCE FOR INDOCHINA,

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, D.C., November 11, 1975.

Chairman, Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary and Vocational Education, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Attached is additional information for the record which was requested by the subcommittee at the November 5 hearing on education assistance for Indochina refugees.

This information includes: the number of school age children as part of total annual immigration, the number of Vietnamese refugees who are teachers and their location by State, the numbers of children whose status is unclear and the most recent statistics on refugee financial and medical assistance.

With respect to the children who may be orphans, the Subcommittee should be aware of the unique problem these children present and the program that has been established to assist them. While these children have entered the country without their parents, they have arrived with families to whom they are related or with adult friends with whom they are unrelated. Since the possibility exists that some of these children may have parents living in Vietnam, or parents who are refugees themselves but were separated from their children, we have concluded that these children should be ineligible for adoption until their status can be resolved. Accordingly, foster care placement has been arranged through the State child welfare agencies in the States where the recep tion centers are located. We hope that the status of these children will he resolved by the Immigration and Naturalization Servit as soon as possible. In those cases where a child's parent can be located, wil attempt to reunite them. In cases where it is determined that a child's not living, they will be eligible for adoption under normal legal This policy has been adopted because we believe it is the most equangement both for these children and for their parents.

I will be happy to provide any additional inforzinha the Subcommittee may request.