Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
South Florida schools take in island students
About 400 kids from hurricane-damaged areas enrolled, so far
Some children are arriving without school supplies or English skills, some even without their parents.
Hurricanes uprooted life as they know it and now South Florida schools must help them start over.
Public schools across the tricounty area have enrolled almost 400 students from Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Florida Keys or Texas — all hit by hurricanes that shuttered schools and tore into neighborhoods.
School officials say they don’t know how many more to expect, but this may be just the beginning.
Plane tickets from San Juan are still hard to come by weeks after Hurricane Maria struck, leaving droves of Puerto Ricans waiting for their chance to get to the mainland.
Schools here are preparing their teachers, social workers and other staff for an onslaught of students who may show up weeks behind, having suffered trauma.
They’re also teaming with local organizations to collect supplies.
“We’re thinking that packing
school supplies to come with you to Florida is not at the top of the priority list,” said Amity Schuyler, spokeswoman for Palm Beach County schools. “We will meet them where they’re at. We’ll help every family.”
And they’re suspending normal rules. Hurricane evacuees will have 30 days to submit vaccination records, whereas typical new students must submit them at enrollment. The evacuees also won’t need transcripts.
The students will be designated as homeless, which means they’ll get free meals, uniforms, supplies and additional support if they need it.
Broward and Palm Beach County schools have “welcome centers” where families can connect to social services, get supplies and register their kids for classes all at once.
Broward just opened its center at the Lauderdale Manors Early Learning and Family Resources Center to handle the expected rush of newcomers. The site is equipped with a food pantry, clothing bank and access to immunizations and health physicals.
“All of the students are welcome. Period,” said Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie. “We will take them in our schools, we will enroll them, we will provide them services. We will treat them with equitability. We will do what we can to ensure that they have the best educational experience we can provide given that they’re going through some significant challenges.”
Both Palm and Broward school districts said their existing staff members are prepared to handle students’ emotional troubles and language barriers so they do not plan to hire additional staff. Miami Dade did not return requests for an interview.
While some schools battered by hurricanes have reopened, others remain closed weeks after the impact. In Texas, three school districts hit by Hurricane Harvey won’t reopen until Oct. 16.
Some schools in the U.S. Virgin Islands are scheduled to open Monday, but at least a couple of others are too decimated to use again, according to the Virgin Islands Daily News, a newspaper for the region.
Puerto Rico has opened 22 schools and plans to finish the rest by Oct. 23, but Puerto Rico Education Secretary Julia Keleher said she’s gotten damage reports on fewer than half of them because communication on the island has been difficult.
Students fleeing Puerto Rico will face unique challenges as they settle into their new Florida schools. They are used to learning in Spanish. They all wear uniforms while not all Florida schools require them. They are accustomed to a different report card schedule than Florida uses. And assistant principals and guidance counselors will be new to many of them, which Puerto Rican schools typically don’t have, Keleher said.
Maraliz Gonzalez in recent days moved her children from Puerto Rico to South Florida. Puerto Rican students “will struggle here,” she said. “My little one, who is in the second grade, is not completely bilingual; she’s crying all the time.”
English or not, all hurricane evacuees are at risk for anxiety after the traumatic event.
One of the biggest challenges teachers may face is ensuring that new students stay focused: Kids can withdraw when they’re nervous, said Cristina del Busto, a clinical coordinator at the Florida International University’s Center for Children and Families.
The more social support the students have, the more quickly they will get back into schoolwork, she said.
At Somerset Academy in Pembroke Pines, schools are answering the call by assigning every evacuee a classmate buddy.
The extra support is welcome help for Gonzalez, whose kids attend Somerset now. Her husband had to stay in Puerto Rico and she and the kids left for Florida without saying goodbye to much of her family.
“They miss their friends, their grandma, their grandfather, their uncles and aunts,” Gonzalez said. “They miss their school.”