Any parent who has entered a child into a new school understands the stress of maneuvering the new system and making sure the child's needs are met.

There are stacks of paperwork to wade through, emergency contact information to provide, new rules and bus schedules to memorize, and new staff to meet and remember.

Add to that a language, cultural and transportation barrier and you might begin to understand the experience of refugee families.

To ease that burden, school officials from Paynter Elementary in Baldwin Borough went to Prospect Park apartments last week with interpreters to share with refugee parents the information they would need to help their children.

For more than a decade, the Baldwin-Whitehall School District has experienced the challenge of meeting the needs of numerous refugees who have been resettled by various social service agencies to the sprawling Prospect Park apartment complex.

The families come from across the globe and generally do not know a lot of English or understand of the American education system. They generally have no access to cars or other transportation to get to the schools.

Of the Baldwin-Whitehall schools, Paynter has the highest proportion of refugee students -- 97 of the school's 704 students. Paynter is the elementary school in the attendance area of the Prospect Park apartments.

The entourage that met with refugee parents last week included Paynter Principal Darlene DeFilippo, Vice Principal Patricia Fusco and social workers Reita Melvin and Sarah Dunn.

There were three groups of refugees, each with its own interpreter arranged by the school officials. The groups were from Burundi, Myanmar (Burma) and Nepal.

The families sat in three different rooms, grouped by their nationality, and the school officials moved from room to room sharing their information and offering their services.

Some of the refugee children have never attended a public school system before so their parents are unfamiliar with the regulations and routines.

Mrs. DeFilippo started by explaining to parents they are welcome at the school and are encouraged to be a part of their children's education and to join the PTA. Some parents didn't understand the concept of a PTA, but once it was explained, they appeared interested in being involved.

Mrs. DeFilippo said the district would provide transportation from the Prospect Park complex to the school for such activities as open house.

She told the parents that their children are served both breakfast and lunch at school and asked them to inform the school of food allergies or diet restrictions.

She also asked parents to let the school know if their children stay home sick and that they must bring a written excuse when they return to school.

One of the trickier concepts to explain was how a two-hour weather delay works. "It's really confusing, so watch TV, listen to the radio and talk to your neighbors," Mrs. DeFelippo said. "The bus will still come but it will be two hours later."

The principal also asked parents to make sure the students wear socks and shoes to school rather than sandals or flip-flops. "With the flip-flops, a lot of the kids are getting injured on the playground," she explained.

The principal also explained that the nurse has medications such as Tylenol available to give to their children if they suffer a headache, but that it can't be given without their permission. She passed around medication authorization forms for the parents to sign.

Mrs. DeFilippo also explained to parents the importance of maintaining an emergency contact phone number and a current address with the district.

She informed the parents about an upcoming afterschool program that will include tutoring, help with homework, games and snack time.

And, she reminded them of the importance of parent-teacher conferences, which will be held in November.

Social worker Sarah Dunn's presentation focused on solving problems for the families. She came equipped with name labels for the families to place on their mailboxes so that letter carriers will deliver school mail to them.

Some of the district's mail to the refugee families was returned because postal workers didn't know where to deliver it.

Ms. Dunn also told the parents that if their children say they've been picked on or teased, "we want to hear about it." Likewise, if students don't have socks and shoes, "let us know," she said.

Parents left the meetings with their heads full of new information and hands full of papers. But they smiled and appeared appreciative, if overwhelmed.

Baldwin-Whitehall Superintendent Lawrence Korchnak said district officials plan to reach out to the refugee families regularly to make sure the children have a smooth transition to school.

"We want to educate them about our procedures and expectations and give the parents somewhat of an idea of what to expect from the district," Dr. Korchnak said. "This is an attempt to face the challenge of their transition here and to put forth our true commitment to them."

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