Hispanic parents grateful for Idaho schools but need cultural awareness from staff, study finds 

By Logan Finney, Idaho Reports 

Hispanic parents are grateful for the educational opportunities available to their children but face many of the same challenges as other parents in Idaho schools, as well as cultural insensitivity and stereotyping from administrators, according to a study released Thursday.  

The “Here to Stay” report, released by charter school support nonprofit Bluum, details findings from five focus groups conducted with Hispanic parents of school-aged children in Idaho. Sessions were held in English in Idaho Falls, Twin Falls, Payette and Nampa, with an additional Spanish session held in Nampa.  

“We know Hispanic families are choosing public charter schools: in Caldwell, for example, 72% of students who attend Elevate Academy Charter School identify themselves as Hispanic; while 62% of students attending Heritage Community Charter School are Hispanic,” says the introduction by Bluum CEO Terry Ryan and operations manager Ashley Cotton. “We want to better understand – and to help our state’s educators better understand, be they traditional district, public charter, or private school – what Idaho’s growing Hispanic population want from their schools, and from education more generally.” 

Many of the findings in the report addressed school and teacher capacity, or struggles to understand new techniques used to teach math – issues that all Idaho parents are facing, not just Hispanic ones.  

“Our schools have grown so much that they’re overcrowded, and they’re just overwhelmed and say, ‘We can’t deal with this anymore. We’ll get back to you.’ And hopefully, you’ll forget about it,” an Idaho Falls parent said.  

Many participants reacted positively to the idea of seeing Hispanic staff in school buildings, or having access to teachers that speak Spanish, but did not see demographics as a requirement for a good school. While representation would be nice, most Hispanic parents were more concerned about the quality of the education their children are receiving.  

“When I first came to this school a couple years ago, I didn’t see a lot of Mexican-looking kids. I didn’t know how my kids were going to make friends. But it worked out,” said one Idaho Falls parent. “It’s not all going to be based on what the people look like. If it’s full of Mexicans but they’re all bad teachers, I wouldn’t want my kids there.”  

Another common theme was that schools rely too heavily on apps and technology to communicate with families. Parents also felt that the communication they see focuses too heavily on logistics, like which days a school will be closed, and not enough about how their individual students are doing. 

“For one thing, what Idaho’s Hispanic families care about is often no different than what all families care about,” the report states. “Responding to their needs is equivalent to responding to the needs of all families.” 

Several new immigrants in the focus groups expressed gratitude that their children can receive individual support and specialized attention in U.S. schools to address their learning needs.  

“Something very positive is that autism is respected here, they make the children feel that they are not discriminated against,” said a parent in Payette. “It is something that I never saw in Colombia and I appreciate it, because in such a short time we have felt these doors open.” 

However, there are specific areas where Hispanic families face issues. Many parents spoke out about their experiences facing cultural or language assumptions based solely on their race or their last name. Several talked about receiving communications in Spanish or learning that their child had been placed in ESL classes, or English as a Second Language, even though they speak fluent English at home. 

“When I was getting my son tested, we didn’t really know if he had autism or a learning delay or what, but the district said sometimes there can be a six-month delay where the child doesn’t understand because you taught him Spanish,” said one parent from Twin Falls. “But my son spoke English. I kind of took offense to that. I knew as his mom that he was behind in both languages.”  

The report highlights the need for cultural sensitivity, calling for extra care and awareness from school administrators and teachers to help build trust and forestall suspicions of indifference or bias. 

“I mean his therapists are amazing. But at first they looked at me and they just assumed you speak Spanish at home. My husband doesn’t even speak Spanish,” one Idaho Falls parent said. “And they would dumb stuff down for me because they felt like I wasn’t going to understand if they used the proper terms. And it was like they just assumed that I was an uneducated Mexican.”  

Researchers described their findings in the report as consistent with a previous study commissioned by Bluum, called “Hispanic Parents Speak Out,” but noted that the questions were developed separately.  

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