Filipino teachers, with visas secured, are back in Baltimore jobs

Filipino teachers who were hired by Baltimore had to leave the U.S. when their visas expired. They’re now back in Baltimore in classes like this after city schools authorities provided legal help to secure their visas. YOUTUBE

BALTIMORE— Most of the two dozen Filipino teachers who had to leave Baltimore at the end of the last school year because of expiring visas have returned to their classrooms.

Baltimore City Schools Chief Human Capital Officer Jeremy Grant-Skinner tells The Baltimore Sunthe district was committed to bringing the veteran educators back because of the value they brought to a school system beset by high teacher turnover.

Most of the teachers worked in tough-to-fill math, science and special education positions, and were hired through a foreign teacher recruitment effort in the late 2000s to compensate for a lack of American-born teachers.

The district worked with an immigration firm to secure visa extensions and will now try to help the teachers establish permanent residency. One case has yet to be settled.