Carolina Tenecela joined immigration advocates Thursday calling on city officials to expand funding for immigrant families and asylum seekers coming into the city.

“They want their children to be able to have everything they couldn’t have,” said Tenecela, Life project coordinator with Little Sisters of the Assumption.

She said she knows firsthand what it means for newly arrived immigrants families to be given resources that help their kids succeed in education. Her mother immigrated to the United States from Ecuador.

“I had a mother who didn’t really speak any English. We lived in the projects. She was an immigrant, and this is the story of so many of us,” said Tenecela, whose mother arrived to America in 1995.

City leaders estimate 8,000 migrants have arrived this summer on buses sent by Texas Governor Greg Abott — many families with young kids that advocates say need extra support as the school year begins.

“New York City will be welcoming over 1000 asylum seeking youth from Central and South American countries that have been arriving over the last few months from the border,” said Andrea Ortiz, senior manager of education policy with the New York Immigration Coalition.

The city recently opened a multi-million dollar welcome center in a Red Cross building in Hell’s Kitchen to help kids enroll in school and assist adults with job placement. The groups rallying Thursday said more is needed: they want about four million dollars to link immigrant families to early childhood education, saying it would be a small amount from the Department of Education budget.

“If we’re worried about enrollment in our DOE system, If we’re worried about our kids getting into the schools that they need to get into that are close to them that provide the services they need that money is so well spent,” said Liza Schwartzwald, with New York Immigration Coalition.

The education department says it’s working to accompany families from their temporary housing to a separate family welcome center where migrant children can enroll in school. There’s bilingual staff on site, and NY1 was told the city is handing out backpacks there.

But groups Thursday say they also want the City Council to renew its 10 million dollar investment in childcare for undocumented children.

“A lot of these people are immigrants and their home countries were full of war and violence and now they just want the best for their children,” said Tenecela.