St. Nicholas Cathedral School in Chicago has become a hub for Ukrainian families fleeing the war. Since the violence began, 17 students from Ukraine have enrolled.

The school, which has about 160 students, many of whom are Ukrainian-American, has begun fundraising to support students who have arrived with nothing.

On Monday, the students gathered with other schools in the area to pray for peace.

Assistant Principal Lisa Swytnyk knows that the needs will continue. She said that the school expects more students to arrive, but it’s hard to say when. “It’s not like we know before. They just show up … here or next door at the church, and they bring them here,” she told Block Club Chicago.

One thing is clear. When the students arrive, St. Nicholas will be there to meet their needs.

Because that’s what parochial schools do. In times of war or tragedy, or just in the everyday challenges of life, Catholic schools step up to meet academic, spiritual, and practical needs every single day.

And when a school closes because it cannot sustain itself any more, it has ripple effects far beyond just textbooks and tests.

That’s why we fight so hard for the education freedom that will allow schools to stay open. Click here to let us know you want to join the cause.

Families want choices, more than ever before, but many cannot afford to pay out of pocket for the schools their children need. Schools regularly offer steep discounts and operate at a loss to keep students in school, but this solution is temporary.

School choice offers the solution for helping parochial schools stay around for years to come.

Thank you for standing with students.

PS: Here’s how one Cleveland teacher works to help children meet their full potential

A few weeks ago, a student in Molly Hanna’s first-grade class at St. Thomas Aquinas in Cleveland answered a question correctly—something that happens hundreds of times a day in our schools. This time, it was a question about vowel sounds. Molly explains: “I wrote down the words ‘port’ and ‘part’ on the board. I asked my students to hold up 1 finger if ‘port’ was the correct way to spell ‘part’ and to hold up 2 fingers if ‘part’ was the correct way to spell ‘part.’”

While Molly sometimes tells students “correct” or “good job” for getting the right answer, this time, she rewarded the correct response with another question. “Tell me why,” she asked one child… While these few seconds of a first grade class may seem simple and routine, they didn’t happen by accident. That week, Molly had intentionally decided to choose moments in her lessons when she would ask students to stretch correct responses for an important reason: she wants students to “further their understanding of the content I’m teaching.”

Like athletes who achieve excellence by mastering the fundamentals of their sports, teachers can hone the most basic tools of the classroom, like questions, to amplify student learning.

Read Ms. Hanna’s full story: https://www.partnershipnyc.org/a-cleveland-teacher-stretches-her-students-and-herself/