1 SWK 3370. Diversity and Intervention Case Study Torres Family Case Study Referral Background You are a school social worker that was asked to consult on a case regarding two children that have missed large amounts of school in the past three months of December, January, and February. One child is a 5th grader (10-years-old), named Carlos Torres, and the other is a 1st grader (6-years-old) named Isabella. Both children seem to do well in school when they are attending class regularly, as they did during the first part of the school year. However, since December, both children have been missing 2-3 days of school per week. The school attendance officer, Mrs. Wilson, states that she has reached out to their mother, Rosario Torres, to try to talk to her about her concerns but that she never answers the phone and doesn’t respond to voicemails. Mrs. Wilson comments that she’s “not even sure that the lady speaks English” and says, “I think she’s an illegal.” Mrs. Wilson also states that she has sent letters home regarding her concerns (in English) but that she doesn’t know if they have been received. Collateral Data Collection Carlos’s 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Lopez, states that Carlos is incredibly intelligent and that when he is in class he is very well behaved and respectful. She comments that he often appears very tired and that this morning she overheard him comment to other kids about his “long ride to school in the mornings.” Mrs. Lopez says that when she has asked Carlos about missing school he doesn’t provide much information beyond giving an apology, although he has indicated that his father “had to leave” and that his mother is “having a hard time right now.” She also mentions that she heard him say to one of the kids that he’s “the man of the house now.” Isabella’s 1st grade teacher, Mr. Campbell, says that although Isabella is also well behaved, she is missing so much school that her reading skills are not up to par and he is very concerned about her lack of literacy. Mr. Campbell also mentions that Isabella often states that she is very hungry when she is in class. Mrs. Lopez and Mr. Campbell have asked you to look further into the case because they are concerned that both children will need to be held back another year, or have to attend summer school, if they are not able to get back on track with their attendance. Before going out to the home to visit the family, you decide to try to get some additional information from Carlos, since he is the older child. Just before lunch, you go to the classroom to bring Carlos to your office. He seems very concerned that he might be missing lunchtime and mentions several times that he is very hungry and would really like to eat lunch before talking. When you mention that you want to go to his house to meet with his mom, he becomes very concerned and asks “why? Is she in trouble?” You reassure him that she’s not, but that your job is to provide any help that might be needed in the home, especially if that would help him attend school more regularly. Carlos mentions that his family moved recently and that we might have the wrong address on file. He provides the new address for the family, and you notice immediately that it is definitely outside of the school’s boundaries, and at least 30 miles away. Carlos asks if he can go get lunch “before it’s all gone.” You walk him to the lunchroom and you notice that Patty, the lunch person, gives him an especially large portion. After Carlos sits down to eat, you ask Patty about that and she says, “I’m pretty sure that this is the only meal he’s getting every day.” She shared that on more than one occasion he and his sister have come in before school, and asked if they could just have some 2 crackers or something because they hadn’t eaten anything since the school lunch the day before. She also notices that Carlos will often give his own food to his little sister if he’s concerned she hasn’t eaten enough. Family Visit Given the information you have received, you decide to go out to the home to visit the family. The family is living in an apartment, and when you knock, a woman answers the door. You ask if she is Rosario Torres. The woman, who speaks English, says that she is not, but that she’ll call her, and that Rosario is her sister. You are invited in the home and you immediately notice that it is extremely clean and smells very nice; but that it’s clear that the living room is being used as a bedroom, as there are 3 make-shift beds in the living room, made out of couch cushions and blankets on the floor. You sit at the table with Rosario, and her younger sister, Eva, who answered the door. Eva speaks English well, and although Rosario speaks some English, she asks that Eva be present to ensure that she is able to translate when she doesn’t fully understand what is being said. You explain that you are from the school and that you are concerned about the attendance of the children, and would like to know if there is any assistance that can be provided for the family. Mrs. Torres begins to cry and explains that her husband was deported in November, after being pulled over for a broken tail light. She says that he was the main breadwinner in the home, and that she was working part-time cleaning homes, and taking care of their 3 children, Carlos, Isabella, and Javier, a 3-year-old that she says is napping in one of the bedrooms. Rosario states she and her husband, Carlos Sr., came to the United States nine years ago from Honduras. She says that in her home country her neighborhood had become overrun with gang violence. She says that the “Maras” (members of the MS-13 gang) had kidnapped her and held her for 2 weeks until her husband was able to come up with $5,000 to get her back. In order to obtain the money needed, her husband had taken out a loan from a local loan shark, using their home as collateral, and that since there were no jobs in Guatemala, they had to come to the U.S. to try to work to make the money to pay the loan shark back. Eventually they heard from family members in Honduras that the home had been taken, and they realized they had nothing to go back to, so they decided to stay in the United States. They came into the U.S. with the help of a “coyote” (a smuggler) and remark that the voyage was incredibly difficult, especially with a 1-year-old baby, but that they prayed to God every night to get them through, and He did. Rosario comments that when she hears that her people aren’t considered “refugees” it makes her mad, because she feels that if she returned home she would be kidnapped again, and possibly killed for the money they still owe. “You have no idea how awful those 2-weeks of my life were,” she says. She says that for years after that kidnapping she struggled with nightmares and has had trouble sleeping ever since. She says that she also has extreme anxiety and that since her husband was deported she has been struggling with depression and anxiety attacks. Rosario states that after her husband was deported, she tried to start working more in order to pay the rent on their previous apartment by herself, but that she couldn’t get enough money together, so she moved in with her sister. Rosario and her sister, Eva appear extremely close. Eva’s husband was deported last year as well, and she works at a local car wash and cleaning houses, to support herself and her two children. The women state that they are living in the two-bedroom apartment with another woman, Carmen, and 6 children. Each woman has 2 jobs, but they are still struggling to pay the rent on the 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment. 3 Rosario states that the reason the kids haven’t been getting to school regularly is because they are outside of the district now and don’t have access to the school bus, and she no longer has a vehicle. She states that another woman in the apartment complex has agreed to take the kids to school on her way to work (in exchange for gas money), on the days that she works, but that if she has days off during the week, the kids have no other way of getting to school. You mention that there is a school right down the street that the kids could attend and ask why they haven’t done that. She says that “because of how things are in America right now” that was very scary for her. She states that she lives in a state of constant worry, not only because she is undocumented, but because Carlos is also undocumented, while the two younger children aren’t. Eva also expresses concerns about the fact that she is undocumented, but both of her children were born in the United States. “If we get deported, what will happen to our children?” both women wonder. Both women express that although they know that most of their children are entitled to food stamps because they are U.S. citizens, they have not applied for them because they’re afraid of getting anywhere near a government office. They admit that they are concerned that their kids aren’t getting enough to eat because things have been so tight, and both women cry when you express concern about how hungry Carlos and Isabella are when they are at school. Rosario says that she has a handful of homes that she cleans regularly, and that she is also employed by a local hotel to clean rooms, but that her boss often doesn’t pay her regularly, or will not pay her the amount she was hired at. She says she was told that she would be paid $7.00 per hour but that when she gets paid sometimes it’s much less. She says that when she talked to her boss about it he said “what are you going to do? Report me to the police? You’re illegal, you need to take what you can get.” Rosario says that she is trying to find something else, but for the moment, she is having to accept whatever amount she can get from her house cleaning and hotel cleaning jobs. Rosario says that she wants her children to do well in school, as that is a big part of the “American Dream,” and that she talks to her kids about working hard and behaving well. She states that she just can’t help them with their homework, and that she doesn’t know what to do about how much school the kids are missing. She says that she has received Mrs. Wilson’s voicemails but has not responded because when she tried calling her back once she was stumbling on her words and Mrs. Wilson said, “do you even speak English?” in a very rude tone. After that incident, Rosario didn’t feel comfortable communicating with anyone at the school.
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