Mary Lauri and Roberto Rodríguez, asylum seekers from Venezuela, heard about Public School 46, in Fort Greene in Brooklyn, from a mother at Hall Street, the emergency shelter where their family had been placed. It was five blocks away and had a Spanish dual-language program. When Ms. Rodríguez went to register her two younger children the second week in January, the school’s parent coordinator, Amanda Ocasio, a 30-year-old Puerto Rican woman with platinum hair, big brown eyes and funky red glasses, was standing inside the entrance with the security guards to welcome them. There was breakfast, and there were piles of warm clothes, school supplies and toiletries in the teachers’ lounge for parents and children to choose from. Allison Blechman, the English as a new language teacher, took the family on a tour of the school: a beautiful library with books in English and Spanish and comfortable chairs, a science lab with 3-D printers, an auditorium with a stage and curtains like a real theater, whiteboards in every classroom.

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Persons: Mary Lauri, Roberto Rodríguez, Rodríguez, Amanda Ocasio, Allison Blechman Organizations: Street Locations: Venezuela, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Spanish, Puerto Rican