Flexibility and understanding are the keys to success. Refugee students often have more challenges to achieve consistent attendance. Unlike immigrants, refugees consistently begin at the bottom of the economic ladder and often work multiple jobs and shifts within one household. Meanwhile, they are struggling to adapt to a new culture and language, to adjust to having lost everything including their home and their homeland, and to rebuild family and community ties despite death and separation of key members. Ambivalence about leaving behind the language and culture of their homeland can be an additional barrier as refugee students are trying to learn English. Open enrollment, a flexible approach to establishing classes at convenient times and locations, and understanding regarding attendance can increase the success of your program.

Personal trust is important. Many of today's refugees have suffered a severe loss of trust, especially if they experienced a civil war in which neighbor turned against neighbor.

As a result, teachers need to foster a safe learning environment and work to build trust with and among their refugee students.

Mothers will come if their young children are nearby. Programs for refugee women will be much more successful if day care is provided on-site or if the teacher has a more tolerant attitude toward women bringing infant and toddler children to class. If the program cannot provide daycare and the children are too disruptive to class, a cooperative day care may be established if the students agree to rotate responsibility for watching the children.

Literacy-level textbooks work with pre-literate students. For refugees not literate in their own language, literacy-level English textbooks can be used to develop English language literacy without establishing first language literacy.

Secondary trauma is real. Be careful about asking for details of your students' refugee experiences. Many have suffered horrors you have only read about in the news. Just listening can often be a great help, and your students' willingness to share their stories shows that they trust you.

But, remember that hearing a personal story from someone sitting in front of you may affect you greatly.

Some teachers, just like other social service providers working with refugees, suffer from secondary trauma from the intense stories their students share with them.

If you find yourself getting involved beyond your comfort zone, share your feelings of discomfort and assist the individual in seeking help from a trained professional familiar with refugee issues.

Remember your students are survivors. Many people who first come in contact with refugees experience overwhelming pity for those who have suffered so greatly. But, such pity can result in a tendency to lower your expectations of refugee students rather than tapping into their tremendous survival skills to empower them to achieve even more. Every refugee who has been resettled in the United States has overcome tremendous odds to survive the refugee experience and be one of the 78,000 of the refugees of the world who are resettled in the U.S. each year.