The first day of classes kicked off in New York City on Thursday as schools grapple with the influx of migrant students, as some 21,000 children seeking asylum are expected to be joining already jam-packed classrooms.

It was a chaotic scene outside PS 143 in Queens, where thousands of students rushed toward the building, some carrying brown paper bags brimming with rolls of paper towels, notebooks, and crayons.

Some children were crying as their parents dropped them off. Teachers stood by balloons — one to indicate first grade, two for second and three for third — and helped shuffle kids into the building.

Ahead of Day 1, the DOE gave teachers a bare-bones guide on how to deal with the influx of migrants.

In the letter, educators were warned that they are on their own when it comes to procuring additional supplies and bridging any language barriers with their students, the majority of whom do not speak English.

The paltry 2-page instruction manual came just a day before teachers welcomed some 21,000 migrant kids into their classrooms, about 2,500 more students than officials said last week.

The letter also suggests that the DOE cannot tell schools how many migrant students any one school will be taking in, because it does not track immigration status and warns that administrators “should not turn away any students.”

And if there is still any trouble, the DOE offers only red tape, telling schools with problems to “Please complete the Central Project Open Arms Team-Support Request form.”

The title of the letter, Project Open Arms, is the name of a partnership between the DOE and city social service agencies that has allocated money to shore up classroom aid for the new student migrant population.

The DOE has hired 188 teachers licensed to teach English as a new language, plus another 175 new teachers who are bilingual over the last year — meaning there were about 3,400 English as a New Language licensed teachers and over 1,700 teachers that speak both English and Spanish on hand Thursday.