Stay or return home? Tough choice for Ukrainian refugees as school year starts

Children in Ukrainian national dresses are seen on the occasion of the Children's Day at the pedestal of the monument to Marshal Koniev, in Krakow, Poland June 1, 2022. Jakub Porzycki/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. POLAND OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN POLAND.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Ukrainian children streamed into new schools across central Europe for the first time on Thursday, staying abroad after others returned home to familiar classrooms and the dangers of war.

With many having not attended previously as their parents, after fleeing to central Europe, kept them out of local schools in hopes of a quick end to the war, the continuing conflict had school systems in Poland, Czech Republic and elsewhere braced for potentially hundreds of thousands of new foreign students.