The aftermath: from Texas to Utah, educators, politicians and education vendors are working to help displaced students.As Hurricane Rita Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 2005. roared over the Gulf of Mexico Noun 1. Gulf of Mexico - an arm of the Atlantic to the south of the United States and to the east of Mexico Golfo de Mexico Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean - the 2nd largest ocean; separates North and South America on the west from Europe and Africa on the east coast in late September and left displaced children and families of Hurricane Katrina  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. to find yet another temporary home out of harm's way beyond the danger limit; in a safe place.- Latimer. See also: Out , Katrina's wrath was still reverberating re·ver·ber·ate v. re·ver·ber·at·ed, re·ver·ber·at·ing, re·ver·ber·ates v.intr. 1. To resound in a succession of echoes; reecho. 2. . Many school children initially displaced by Katrina and living temporarily in Texas had to move yet again when Rita was about to set in, either to other shelters in central or northern Texas, or with family and friends. Houston schools did not reopen immediately as people were asked to come back in shifts to avoid massive traffic jams. Following Katrina, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings dedicated to pay 90 percent of educational costs of students and schools affected by the hurricane. She proposed $2.6 billion for elementary, secondary and post-secondary relief, or $7,500 per K-12 student affected, over one year. Most money will go toward K-12 public schooling. But some is going into private schools as 61,000 students of more than 187,000 in four severely affected Louisiana parishes were enrolled in private schools before they were forced out and into crowded or portable classrooms in other parts of Louisiana CODE, OF LOUISIANA. In 1822, Peter Derbigny, Edward Livingston, and Moreau Lislet, were selected by the legislature to revise and amend the civil code, and to add to it such laws still in force as were not included therein. , Mississippi, Texas, Georgia and across the nation. The issue of public funds See Fund, 3. See also: Public supporting private school caused an uproar from U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and even the National Education Association. "It is unfortunate that the administration has chosen to open the divisive, social policy debate around vouchers and advance a privatization privatization: see nationalization. privatization Transfer of government services or assets to the private sector. State-owned assets may be sold to private owners, or statutory restrictions on competition between privately and publicly owned agenda at a time when the nation's education system is facing unprecedented challenges," states NEA NEA abbr. 1. National Education Association 2. National Endowment for the Arts NEA (US) n abbr (= National Education Association) → Verband für das Erziehungswesen President Reg Weaver Reg Weaver is the president of the National Education Association, the largest professional association and one of the most influential educator groups in the United States. . The Department of Education and districts considered how to compensate for missed school days. But Spellings announced that the department will allow a one-year reprieve on academic accountability standards under No Child Left Behind, allowing the schools affected by Katrina and Rita to avoid penalty for poor annual assessments. But schools must show they did not meet state standards due to the disaster. School administrators also reported that much of the education information technology infrastructure weathered the storms. Spellings also convened in October a group of mental health experts for the first of six roundtable series to learn more about the hurricane's impact on displaced children. A new booklet for school officials and parents, "Tips for Helping Students Recovering from Traumatic Events," is available at www.hurricanehelpforschools.gov/ index.html. Teachers, many of whom applied for unemployment, are also encouraged to take other teaching jobs in schools taking in displaced students. Many headed for new homes in Florida and other nearby states. The hurricanes also brought about the need to revisit Title VII-b of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1986 (Pub. L. 100-77, July 22, 1987, 101 Stat. 482, 42 U.S.C. 11301 et seq.) is a United States federal law that provides federal money for shelter programs. , designed to ensure that homelessness does not cause these children to be left in segregated "schools" such as those set up in shelters, U.S. Air Force bases, or other places separate from the neighborhood district. Barbara Duffield, policy director at the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, says she believes there was "another pressure" from charter and for-profit schools to put classrooms in shelters, such as in Texas and Utah. "Not that they are bad people but they are looking at it as opportunistic," she says. Louisiana was awarded nearly a $21 million NCLB NCLB No Child Left Behind (US education initiative) grant through the Charter Schools Program to help reopen charter schools damaged by the hurricanes, help create 10 new charter schools and expand existing charter schools to accommodate displaced students. Displaced Students Are Taken In They are in Houston and northern Louisiana. They are in Arizona, neighboring Mississippi and the southern states Southern States U.S. Confederacy government of 11 Southern states that left the Union in 1860. [Am. Hist.: EB, III: 73] Dixie popular name for Southern states in U.S. and for song. [Am. Hist. . And they are in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Maine, and Oregon. Houston Independent School District The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest public school system in Texas and the seventh-largest in the United States.[1] Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and insular municipalities. alone took on 23,000 displaced students. Family or friends have taken many displaced residents in, or they have been put in shelters, on closed military bases, and/or given temporary homes. Louisiana had 489 schools closed after Katrina and three districts will be closed until January or the end of the school year. All other schools were to reopen in early October, as Rita did not disrupt those plans. Mississippi had 226 schools closed immediately after Katrina. "We've developed a buddy system buddy system n. An arrangement in which persons are paired, as for mutual safety or assistance. Noun 1. buddy system with every district in the state where we have a cabinet level staff person here at the state Department of Education and have one point of contact with us [at the school] and we get their [district leaders'] questions answered immediately," says Meg Casper, Louisiana's education department spokeswoman. "We're looking to take a snapshot of all districts taking in students and having them let us know their needs and not only meet those needs but with the amount of donations and assistance from across the country, match up those needs with the offers of assistance." Texas alone took in about 45,100 displaced students, putting them in expanded classrooms, and hired about 200 teachers, 25 of whom are from Louisiana. Teachers were hired with a one-year, non-renewable teaching certificate, authorized by the State Board for Educator Certification. Some students may have since moved yet again as they found apartments or other homes in other states, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Debbie Ratcliffe, spokeswoman for Texas Education Agency. Louisiana and Texas officials are also working out details to allow seniors from Louisiana to take the Louisiana assessment test and graduate with a Louisiana diploma, instead of having to take the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test to graduate. Jackson, Miss., which had schools closed until about mid-September, took in about 860 displaced students. Superintendent Earl Watkins says the district is working hard to get additional teachers and put students in portable classrooms, some of which were already in place due to increased enrollment before the storm. By this month, Watkins says, it's very possible students and parents could be returning to their original states and communities. "We are planning for them to stay," however, Watkins says. "Right now, our students need solutions." Emotional Scars As youngsters get tossed from school to school and state to state following two major hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast recently, psychologists and counselors say administrators and teachers must create a safe haven 1. Designated area(s) to which noncombatants of the United States Government's responsibility and commercial vehicles and materiel may be evacuated during a domestic or other valid emergency. 2. for such fragile souls. As many youngsters can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mental disorder that follows an occurrence of extreme psychological stress, such as that encountered in war or resulting from violence, childhood abuse, sexual abuse, or serious accident. , anxiety, or depression, after watching family members and friends die in front of them, after not returning home, and after setting up shelter in likely numerous locations and heading to strange schools with strange classmates Classmates can refer to either:
"First and foremost, teachers and schools can make them feel welcome and make them feel school is ready to receive them and they are happy to have the kids there," says Dan Domenech, senior vice president of urban markets for McGraw-Hill Education. Teachers can also assign student "buddies" to match the personalities of new students, showing them around school and answering questions. "That's being done effectively around the country," Domenech says. Also, students must have the basics--desk, books, and supplies--to have any chance at success. Schools are also hiring more guidance counselors to help deal with emotionally wrought children or seek out those students, picking up on a child's body Noun 1. child's body - the body of a human child juvenile body - the body of a young person baby tooth, deciduous tooth, milk tooth, primary tooth - one of the first temporary teeth of a young mammal (one of 20 in children) language or behavior for those who may not come forward and reveal their angst or anxiety. Angela Pascopella is features editor. Some Vendors Offering Help or Free Software FableVision, Katrina SchoolAid Network, www.fablevision.com Global Student Network, Virtual Classroom, www.globalstudentnetwork.com American Education Corp., A+nyWhere Learning System, www.amered.com Teaching That Makes Sense Inc., "Effective Learning Series" and "On the Road to Writing" allow teachers to use newspapers as instructional tool, www.ttms. org Learning Today Inc. and Let's Go Let's Go may refer to: Television
The Knowledge Center, www.theknowledgecenter.com TestQuest Inc., tutor program, www.testquest.com Sunburst Technology, Inspiration Software, and Sprysoft Corp., software, www.sunburst.com, www.inspiration.com, www.sprysoft.com Questia Media, discounted subscriptions, www.questia.com RELATED ARTICLE: Education vendors lend a hand. Companies and vendors came out of the woodwork after Katrina to offer free or reduced-cost curriculum, books, or online services to the 375,000 displaced K-12 children from Louisiana and Mississippi. And companies such as IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) and Dell also offered help, with Dell shipping hundreds of systems and servers to K-12 schools in affected areas to help customers rebuild their computing infrastructures. "What is going to happen to these kids ... is that [they] are going to be tossed around for the next several months. They are going to move from one area to another. Education gets fragmented when they go from one system to another," says Don Posson, director of operations at Global Student Network and who also has expertise in substance abuse counseling. "Kids are going to be afraid to raise their hands out of fear of looking stupid or they have self-esteem or emotional issues on top of what is going on. With virtual curriculum you can put a student anywhere with whatever teacher. They stay with one teacher and ... it creates a continuity of care." Global Student Network is providing Virtual Curriculum and expertise in establishing Virtual Learning Academies at a reduced price, just to cover operating costs operating costs npl → gastos mpl operacionales . Most teachers in schools would get a stipend to teach the virtual course, Posson says. "We're trying to pioneer using retired teachers," he says. Learning Today Inc. partners with Let's Go Learn to offer Web-based reading and math for at-risk students The term at-risk students is used to describe students who are "at risk" of failing academically, for one or more of any several reasons. The term can be used to describe a wide variety of students, including,
And TestQuest Inc., a supplemental educational service under NCLB, is donating curriculum for students. TestQuest has customized K-12 tutoring programs for special needs and different learning styles primarily in the homes of students. "We're going to provide some of our curriculum, including in English, math and test prep," says Tiffany Hott, president and founder of TestQuest. She anticipates that libraries and families are also donating books and TestQuest would help disseminate those donated items to the children in need. |
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