Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to welcome students with limited or interrupted formal education (aka. SLIFE) into your classroom. The special agent assigned to help you with this task is Orly Klapholz, co-founder of “Inlier Learning” from Hollywood, Florida.

According to the UN, by the end of 2021 as many as half a million people will likely flee Afghanistan. After time spent in refugee camps, many families will resettle in North America and Europe, and I think it’s worth asking ourselves an important question:  would our schools, and would we, as teachers or administrators, be ready to provide Afghan students, or any other population with limited or interrupted schooling, with the best education possible?

In our conversation Orly and I discuss:

1️⃣ Defining SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education) and the need for more data

2️⃣ SLIFE social, emotional, cultural, linguistic, and academic needs as well as the systematic issues that lead to a high drop-out rate

3️⃣ Providing age-appropriate appropriate and trauma informed resources

Click here for more details about our conversation, links mentioned in the episode, and more information about the podcast.