Refugee School Impact Program

The Refugee School Impact Program fosters partnerships between community and schools to better serve refugee students.

Washington state is one of 41 states receiving RSI funds from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Funds are issued to Washington’s Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance (ORIA), which contracts with School’s Out Washington to administer the Refugee School Impact Program.

School’s Out Washington seeks to support local school systems impacted by significant numbers of refugee children and youth, ages five to 18, who have been in the country less than five years.  

Program outcomes

The Washington state Refugee School Impact Program focuses on the following goals:

  • Ensuring refugee students’ academic support and successful school integration
  • Strengthening the skills, knowledge, and competence of parents, schools and community-based organizations to support refugee students

Program activities

School’s Out Washington’s RefugeeSchool  Impact responsibilities include:

  • Supporting district-community partnerships in the implementation of their RSI projects
  • Providing technical assistance and training on program-related issues
  • Offering district-community partnerships opportunities for training, professional development, and additional materials and/or resources to enhance RSI service delivery

General refugee resettlement trends and data for both the United States and Washington state are available online. National monthly refugee arrival data can be found on the Refugee Processing Center website. For information on Washington State’s ORIA, please contact Molly Daggett.

Eligibility

The United Nations (UN) defines a refugee as “a person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country.”

The Office of Refugee Resettlement defines “refugee children” as those who are eligible for refugee social services. This category includes:

  • Refugees
  • Asylees
  • Cuban and Haitian entrants under section 501 of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980 (Pub. L. 96-422)
  • Certain Amerasians from Vietnam who are admitted to the U.S. as immigrants under section 584 of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, as included in the FY 1988 Continuing Resolution (Pub. L. 100-202)
  • Certain Amerasians from Vietnam who are U.S. citizens under Title II of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 1989 (Pub. L.100-461), 1990 (Pub. L.101-167), and 1991 (Pub. L 101-513)
  • Victims of a severe form of trafficking who receive certification or eligibility letters from ORR and certain family members who have been programed derivative T visas (see 45 CFR 400.43 and ORR State Letters Number 01-13 as modified by State Letter Number 02-01 and Number 04-12 on trafficking victims)
  • Children classified as Special Immigrant Juveniles (SIJs) receiving services from Office of Refugee Resettlement-funded Unaccompanied Refugee Minor programs
  • Iraqi and Afghan children with Special Immigrant Visa (SIV)


For convenience, the term “refugee” is used to encompass all such eligible persons. All State Letters issued by the ORR are found in the Policy Guidance section of their website.

2020—2021 RSI Recipients

For 2020—2021, sub grants were awarded to 8 school districts. Districts are required to partner with at least one community-based organization. For more information about the specific district-community projects, please contact the district coordinators directly.

Questions?

Contact our Refugee School Impact Program Project Director, Pang Chang, at pchang@schoolsoutwashington.org