<p>States are offering to take in k-12 students stranded by hurricane Katrina. The Boston Globe reported today that public schools in CT and MA were ready to welcome students. Many MA public schools begin classes on Tuesday, Sept. 6</p>
<p>As of the end of class on Friday, our Houston suburban school already had 40 enrolled, and we know there are at least 60 more enrolling on Monday. Our school nurse has been put in charge of donations and distribution and is setting up a separate school store for these kids with donated school supplies. Many teachers and students donated clothes, supplies etc. Our district has stringent audit procedures, so we are setting up an account for donations, and the nurse will be responsible for determining need and we will supply it, not the money directly - i.e. buy the supplies or clothing and give that to the kids and their families.</p>
<p>How will this work? Will the entire family of the K-12 student move to the NE, or is the kid on his own? It seems like whole family units need a home for several months. This is just such an immense and mind-boggling proposition. Can you imagine losing everything, and then having to just pick up and start over in a new culture.</p>
<p>Yes, that is the problem. I understand the whole family will go. Many states said they would take evacuees, but what to do with those people once they get there? Different climate, culture, far from friends and family? In our case, in my suburb of Houston, TX, the whole family is staying temporarily with friends and relatives - strain on them - many sleeping on floors and couches. The state is providing 2 months' free food stamps and some free gas, but the school's counselors are using their resources to try and find the parents jobs and places to live more permanently - rather daunting, since they estimate that with the people staying with friends and relatives, the Dome, Reliant center and the convention center, we have approximately 100,000 in the Houston area alone already. Some families in our area have as many as 10 people camping out with them. What a financial strain on them, as well! Most of the kids enrolling have told the counselors they have only the clothes on their backs - they got out so fast. We are overwhelmed with how to help them all. They need jobs (as our people here already did) places to live, etc.</p>
<p>The scale of the problem is staggering.</p>
<p>If every religious congregation in the country (church, synagogue, mosque, temple, etc.) would reach out and offer to help with indefinite medium-to-long-term resettlement of ONE family in their own communities, it seems that each individual family's needs could be met in a far more humane and supportive manner than just creating make-shift mass shelters in stadiums and school gyms and armories.</p>
<p>As I posted elsewhere, my own church sponsored a family of Bosnian refugees this way some years ago, and it was a very positive experience for everyone involved. The family had many needs (a place to live, furniture, English lessons, job search, access to public transit, medical appointments, etc.) but many different members of the congregation worked together to address them.</p>
<p>One idea would be for congregations in each community to organize together to adopt an entire neighborhood and/or extended family network, so that the sponsored families assigned to their local congregations would have a network of friends and neighbors from their old community nearby.</p>
<p>There are so many religious congregations in our country....I would think that if each would offer to adopt one family, it would go a long way towards helping.</p>
<p>In some cases, congregations may be located in places that are so far away and in such climactically different conditions (e.g., Alaska or rural Vermont; even a Boston winter might be scarily daunting to a family in distress that has never experienced cold and snow), that they may find that no families are willing to take up their offers. Such congregations might want to partner with their sister congregations of the same faith located in more congenial (i.e., climactically familiar) places to help those congregations sponsor more than one family.</p>
<p>I was wondering whether there is any organization putting together some bookbags with basic school supplies for the displaced kids --- If anyone has heard of this type of effort, please let me know.</p>
<p>Free Online Courses</p>
<p>From Hoagiesgifted.org</p>
<p>Free Online K-8 and High School Courses for Students Displaced by Hurricane Katrina!
An expanded course list, keyed to high school graduation course requirements for Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi will be posted on Hoagies' Page shortly after Labor Day. Please check back...</p>
<p><a href="http://www.hoagiesgifted.org%5B/url%5D">http://www.hoagiesgifted.org</a></p>
<p>Some independent schools in Massachusetts are offering to accept kids as well: Beaver Country Day School, Milton Academy, and Phillips Academy Andover are three. For more info: visit <a href="http://www.nais.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.nais.org/</a>.</p>
<p>I am trying to arrange for a school in my area to adopt a school in an area accomodating the children from Katrina. I am sending emails to every school principal and guidance counselor and PTA member I know to try to make this happen.
After 9/11, schools around the world partnered with NYC schools to lend support to our children.<br>
Evita's high school in TX could use such support.
If any of you are school administrators, guidance counselors, teachers, please suggest such a plan to your school.</p>
<p>carolyn, just heard on TV that Feed the Children is working with Office Depot to get much needed shcool supplies to the kids after they deliver more food, etc.</p>
<p>I just heard on the news that 2500 evacuees are scheduled to be transported to Cape Cod. If this comes to fruition, schools on Cape Cod may need supplies etc.</p>
<p>Vermont public schools are also allowing late registration for displaced k-12 students...</p>
<p>"I just heard on the news that 2500 evacuees are scheduled to be transported to Cape Cod. If this comes to fruition, schools on Cape Cod may need supplies etc."</p>
<p>Cape Cod schools already have massive budget problems as it is, I don't know how they plan to manage this, however it would make for an interesting school year.</p>
<p>The announcement by Gov Romney - is for 2500 evacuees to be flown to MASS!!! NOT Cape Cod - - tho I am aware of several Cape Cod families who are intending on volunteering on providing housing for another family - so hence the children will be welcomed into the school systems - so these families will be scattered thru out the area - not just concentrated on one area.</p>
<p>The 2500 evacuees are expected to arrive in MASS within 24-72 hours.</p>
<p>I wonder how much this will affect Massachusetts' economy. The children aren't an issue, but entire families looking for jobs and homes when the state can barely fund the MA natives. This goes for all states who are opening their hospitality to the evacuees.</p>
<p>Jeepmom-the news mentioned a shelter in Cape Cod. I thought it a bit odd too that all evacuees would be sent there.</p>
<p>I have come across an organization that is coordinating school supplies for the displaced students of Katrina.
Here is the website
<a href="http://backpack.random-assortment.com/letters.html%5B/url%5D">http://backpack.random-assortment.com/letters.html</a></p>
<p>Massachusetts to take about 2,500 refugees from hurricane</p>
<p>By Theo Emery, Associated Press Writer | September 4, 2005</p>
<p>FRAMINGHAM, Mass. --Massachusetts will take in about 2,500 Hurricane Katrina refugees in coming days, sheltering them on Cape Cod for up to two months and likely resettling some permanently in the Bay State, Gov. Mitt Romney said Sunday.</p>
<p>Romney said federal emergency officials told him Sunday to prepare for the evacuees, who will arrive in two to three days, and will be temporarily housed at Camp Edwards on Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod.</p>
<p>Otis has many amenities to accommodate the large numbers, including beds, a school, medical facilities, a gymnasium and a movie theater, he said.</p>
<p>"We have instituted Operation Helping Hands, indicating that the compassion of the people of Massachusetts is as large as our hearts and that we're going to be helping those who are victims of the tragedy in the Gulf," Romney said at a news conference at the state Emergency Management Agency headquarters.</p>
<p>Romney had no estimate of the cost of the effort, but said that it would be shared with the federal government.</p>
<p>"I want to point out at the beginning that cost is not one of our considerations. Compassion is coming first," Romney said. "We're going to worry about the money at another time."</p>
<p>Romney added that the state has a budget surplus this year, so he expects that the costs of the relocation effort can be covered.</p>
<p>The governor said that most, if not all, of the evacuees would be flown directly to Otis. The exceptions would likely be people with severe medical needs, who would fly directly into Logan International Airport in Boston for transport to area hospitals.</p>
<p>It was unclear which area of the hurricane-ravaged region the refugees would be coming from, but Romney said it was likely they were being transferred from shelters in Texas, where many refugees have been placed.</p>
<p>Romney described a massive mobilization to help the evacuees that would meet both their immediate and long-term needs.</p>
<p>The first phase of the effort will be triage when the planes arrive at Otis, to determine the medical needs of the evacuees, who they are and whether they have identification. If they don't, the state plans to provide them with a new temporary state ID, Romney said.</p>
<p>After the refugees are settled, officials will do a more detailed assessment of their needs, such as whether their children need schools, if counseling is needed and whether family members are still lost.</p>
<p>Romney predicted that refugees would only be at Otis for one to two months, but then some would settle permanently in the state. The governor said Massachusetts would have to help some of evacuees get jobs, find housing and transportation.</p>
<p>"Some will decide they want to stay here on a permanent basis, and we're happy to have them do so," he said. "Others will only need two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, and then they're going to want to go home."</p>
<p>Romney also predicted that thousands more people will probably follow on the tails of the first wave -- friends and family who will join the original wave.</p>
<p>There had been confusion on Saturday as to where evacuees would go, after Boston Mayor Tom Menino said he was offering up the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Menino said Sunday that the center "remains ready" to take in evacuees if needed.</p>
<p>"We've appreciated the ideas that have come from many cities," Romney said. "A lot of suggestions have been raised. As we met together, with all of our staff, it's clear that Camp Edwards offers resources that really can't be met in any other facility in the state."</p>
<p>Private Joker-I am certain it will be a strain but it has to be done. Maybe, just maybe (or is this wishful thinking on my part) that it will be a wake up call to keep jobs here in the States.</p>
<p>As Gov. Romney pointed out, MA has a budget surplus (his attempt to enact a tax cut fizzled).</p>
<p>When I saw this thread it made me think of the Gulf coast HS seniors who are going to have to apply to colleges without transcripts, schools or documentation of what they have done. I hope the colleges will be flexible for the class of '10 from that area.
Ellen</p>