Schools Brace for Bhutanese Wave

Sharon Birnkrant, the principal of H.W. Smith School in Syracuse, N.Y., is accustomed to receiving refugees from countries she knows little about. So when she heard from a refugee worker that a group of refugees from Bhutan would be resettled in Syracuse this school year, she went into research mode.

Armed with online information about current events in the Himalayan nation—and about ethnic tensions that have produced thousands of refugees in recent years—Ms. Birnkrant and members of her staff are preparing for the language and cultural challenges posed by their community’s newest immigrant group.

“We have honed our skills at working with new arrivals,” Ms. Birnkrant said this month after her school had enrolled its first two Bhutanese children. “The entire building participates—including...