A New School for Our Newest Students


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For over a decade, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement has regarded Louisville as a preferred community in which to resettle refugees legally admitted to the United States on a humanitarian basis. The resettlement in Louisville each year of hundreds of refugee families has led to a significant increase in the number of foreign-born students enrolled in the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS). Arriving here with limited English, many of these refugee children have also missed years of schooling due to war, displacement, or prolonged confinement in refugee camps. This year, to provide more focused support for these students, JCPS has opened a Newcomer Academy at Shawnee High School for recently-arrived refugee and immigrant children in grades six through 11. A Louisville Courier-Journal article (8.15.06) reports on the Newcomer Academy's first day.
Additional academic support, mentoring and community orientation are provided to JCPS refugee and immigrant students through Kentucky Refugee Ministries' (KRM) Building Futures program. During the 2005-2006 school year, Building Futures paired over 100 JCPS ESL students from over 20 countries with trained volunteer tutors. To find out more about Building Futures, read past editions of the Building Futures newsletter, or learn how you can become involved, visit the Building Futures page.