At Albany Park Elementary School, Community Rallies Behind Migrant St…

It has been a challenging journey for thousands of migrant children arriving in Chicago.

An Albany Park elementary school has become a haven for hundreds of migrant students; staff and alumni are coming together to support the new arrivals.

“We’re trying to put ourselves in the place of these families,” Haugan Elementary School principal Heather Yutzy said. “If we were in this situation, what would we need for our kids?” 

Haugan Elementary has opened its doors to more than 300 migrant students since they began arriving in Chicago last year.

“We prepared differently for this school year,” Yutzy said, “so we doubled our bilingual program, added more staff, and we received about another 150 new children this year.”

Kimberly Solorzano’s son Nick is one of them.

“This has been a big blessing because the staff was so welcoming,” Solorzano said in Spanish, “and I felt like, God, there’s something beautiful in this country.”

Solorzano said after her…