AMARILLO -- Since the fall of Saigon in the mid seventies, Amarillo has welcomed refugees from more than twenty countries.
Through a national program, Catholic Family Service has opened the doors.
That means our schools have opened their doors, too.
But are schools able to handle the variety of kids and their needs and what is the fallout for kids who don't have those special needs?
It's Genie Baca's second year as Principal at Belmar Elementary and she has her hands full with twenty-seven new refugee children.
Last year she had five, now she's outnumbered by a series of challenges.
"They're fresh new into the country with no English so it's a challenge because not only do they need support we have an ESL teacher but they need support in every single subject of the day and we just don't have the staff to cover that kind of support," says Baca.
Support needed to deal with not only custom but also language barriers.
"We have Arabic, Farsi, Kurdish, Swahili, Spanish... five," says Baca.
It's the changing face of a system.
This year alone, two hundred refugees settled in Amarillo through Catholic Family Service.
"Right now we have about thirty-one different languages," says Thuraya Lohony of Catholic Family Service.
Five years ago, they started Refugee School Impact.
"We provide services to all our refugee parents and students to make a successful transition into public school," says Lohony.
But Baca admits there are growing pains with that transition and the new additions are a lot for a campus their size.
All thirty teachers on campus are ESL Certified and are English Language Proficiency Trained to help them teach kids in the classroom.
"We pretty much have Reading and Math covered but we need somebody in science we need somebody when they're Writing," says Baca.
The refugee children are tested daily and put through a thirty minute reading session.
Baca says a tutor helps them in the classroom and the kids are partnered up with fellow refugees.
"Is he going to need some attention yes but no more than a low struggling kid that's in the classroom. The ESL kid is not any different than the two or three kids who are not quite on grade level in the classroom," says Baca.
So does all the focus detract from the kids who don't have these challenges?
"We were prepared, everybody got certified to teach ESL, we've been trained, we're learning it's a day by day learning you know," says Baca.
It's a lesson that breaks down barriers and binds this school together.
According to Catholic Family Service the Federal Government, provides them with four hundred twenty-five dollars per refugee.
The money is used for day to day living expenses including a place to live.
Catholic Family Service tells us they make no profit off of bringing refugees to Amarillo.
In addition, they say there's been an influx of secondary migration.
That's when refugees from different parts of the nation come to this area, because of the employment opportunities.