Sullivan High School in Chicago is a school where communication isn't the easiest.
In normal times, kids constantly have to pass their phones back and forth with Google Translate so they can understand each other.
Over half the kids are immigrants or refugees.
They come from close to 40 different countries.
They speak over 35 different languages.
That's Ellie Fishman, a reporter who spent over three years there and wrote a book about the school called Refugee High.
She returned there with one of our producers at the beginning of this school year and was there on the second day of school.
Kids are really nervous.
They are not native English speakers.
They don't know each other yet.
So they're sitting among a bunch of strangers at this point.
So there's a lot of anxiety and nerves.
Sullivan High School is organized to make them feel at home.
Each step at the staircase by the main entrance says welcome in a different language.
Private spaces for Muslim students to pray.
Shelves full of winter coats and backpacks for students who arrive with none special curriculum and services tailored to them.
This year, though, was the first time students were back in person since the pandemic, which posed some special challenges.
Like, for instance, English teacher Anne Marie Handley was going around the room, student by student, doing one of the most pedestrian beginning of school tasks, filling out the seating chart with the basics while what country are they from?
What do they speak besides English?
Abdel, what languages do you speak?