October 12, 2008
TEXT SIZE

Schools throughout the nation enroll students displaced by Hurricane Katrina


Schools throughout the nation are enrolling students displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Experts believe this will be the largest resettlement of students in the history of the United States, with estimates that over 200,000 students will need to be relocated. The receiving schools not only will have to provide these students with classrooms and textbooks but also will have to the raise the students' academic performance in order to satisfy the accountability provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), unless the U.S. Department Education (ED) waives those provisions. While ED has issued a press release in which it says that certain NCLB reporting requirements will be relaxed for states that were affected by the hurricane, ED has not identified which provisions those are. The National Education Association is asking Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to waive the accountability provisions of NCLB not only for schools in the hurricane's path, but also for states, such as Texas, that are receiving large numbers of students. However, Secretary Spellings has indicated her reluctance to do so at this time. She has also held a meeting with several education groups to discuss disaster recovery efforts and has answered questions regarding the hurricane's impact on education during a White House web chat. The questions ranged from efforts by teachers to locate their students, to student fundraising efforts, to technical questions about the application of NCLB's provisions in the aftermath of Katrina. ED spokeswoman Susan Aspey says that Secretary Spellings is consulting with state superintendents to consider waiving NCLB accountability provisions on a state-by-state basis. According to Ms. Aspey, among the factors that might sway ED is the number of displaced students that individual schools or districts enroll, with those with higher concentrations being more likely to receive waivers.

New York Times
By Sam Dillon
[Link to full story]

Education Week
By Michelle R. Davis
[Link to full story]

[Editor's Note: Secretary Spellings' letter to chief state school officers, below, addresses resources and areas of regulatory flexibility. See also information from last week's Legal Clips, now posted on the NSBA website. In a letter submitted to every member of Congress last week and linked below, NSBA apprised lawmakers of important considerations in providing federal relief to affected school districts, including (1) support for capital funding, since it typically takes about 18 months to complete a school building after funding is in place; (2) short-term and long-term operational funding considerations, especially given what has happened to both the local property tax base and state revenues in affected areas; and (3) the impact of gasoline shortages on school operations.]
[Spellings letter]
[NSBA School Law pages on educational placements for displaced students]
[NSBA letter to Congress]