Jan Reeves, director of the Idaho Office for Refugees, told “Idaho Reports” co-host Melissa Davlin today that 35 Syrian refugees have been resettled in Idaho in the past six months, 20 of them children. He said his office has met with staffers for Gov. Butch Otter to explain the refugee program, and noted that the state administered refugee resettlement in Idaho until 1997, when then-Gov. Phil Batt opted to privatize the program.

“Whenever I hear, ‘We don’t know anything about it,’ it’s not for lack of effort to try to create an understanding of how the program works throughout the entire state, the entire community,” Reeves told Davlin; you can read her full post here.

Reeves said halting the resettlement program isn’t the answer, but he isn’t against strengthening security screenings for refugees, saying it could help bolster the public’s confidence in refugee resettlement.