Boston Effort Boosts Number of Hispanic Kids in Catholic Schools

So many people gathered to share dishes representing their ethnic heritage—including empanadas, arroz y frijoles (rice and beans), and tres leches cake—at Sacred Heart’s first international dinner, that organizers at the Catholic school in Roslindale, Mass., had to scramble to put out extra tables and chairs.

The event’s popularity reflects the school’s diversifying student body, particularly its surging Hispanic enrollment, which has nearly doubled in the past four years.

Sacred Heart’s wave of new Hispanic students is the result of the Catholic Schools Foundation Hispanic Recruitment Initiative, a four-year-old program that seeks to match interested families with 31 schools in and around Boston.

The effort grew out of a realization that the area’s Hispanic population was steadily climbing, yet few Hispanic children attended Catholic school, says Erika Cedrone, the program’s director.

“For many first-generation immigrants, in their country the Catholic schools are for the elite, and the image is they can’t afford to pay for it,” she says. The average tuition for Catholic schools in and around Boston is $4,000.

The program, which has increased Hispanic enrollment by 25 percent, is a boon for both families and schools. Families with demonstrated need receive scholarships that cover three-quarters of tuition but are also asked to contribute to the cost.

At a time when Catholic schools face declining enrollment and competition from charter schools, the influx of students comes as welcome news, says Ms. Cedrone: “If you don’t have students in those seats, you can’t have school.”

However, the biggest obstacle to the program’s success are some of the local Catholic schools, she says.

Schools need to be willing to trim lengthy applications, solicit Spanish-speaking volunteers to translate at school meetings, and become more welcoming to people of other cultures, even with small gestures such as hanging an image of the patron saint of the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe, on the walls.

“Catholic schools are not doing enough to talk to all families,” says Ms. Cedrone.

The Birmingham Foundation, in Osterville, Mass., contributed $150,000 to help start the program. The foundation also gave $120,000 last year to support the program’s $625,000 budget; the rest of the money comes from the Catholic Schools Foundation, which receives money from individuals, corporations, and foundations.