Displaced by Katrina, kids learn hard lessons

updated 2:06 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2005

HOUSTON - On their first day in class after the Labor Day weekend, second-graders of Briarmeadow Charter School were excitedly playing “Subtraction Wars” with toy blocks in their math class.

Not Jameall Gatlin. The 8-year-old boy had a donated new blue polo shirt, new khaki shorts, new Nike sneakers. But he was quiet and shy, understandably so: He's a long way from his home in devastated New Orleans.

“It's very different,” he mumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets, when asked what he thought of his new school.

Here, as in towns and cities around the country that have taken in Hurricane Katrina's dispossessed, refugee students are getting a tough crash course in adjustment.

Katrina forced an unprecedented displacement of students from the Gulf Coast, just as schools across America are starting the academic year. From Maine to California, districts have begun hastily enrolling these students, even embracing them — with a smile, a hug or a welcome sign drawn in art class.

A strain on schools
The influx is putting a logistical and financial strain on schools at a time when many are grappling with budget and program cuts, soaring gas prices, and the pressure of satisfying the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires yearly progress in math and reading among all students.

Classroom space, textbooks, transportation and teachers for new students — how much it will cost? No one can say. Still, says Paul Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, “I think districts will keep taking the students and figure it all out later.”

Even before Katrina, Texas, which has absorbed nearly a quarter-million refugees, was already having problems funding its growing, public school system. In 2003, about 300 school districts sued the state, claiming that not enough money was going to schools.

This year, in response to the lawsuit, Gov. Rich Perry convened three emergency sessions of the Texas legislature to resolve the money problem. Still, lawmakers failed to come up with a new plan.

Regardless of such challenges, schools are welcoming displaced kids.

‘Katrina kids’
By Tuesday afternoon, the Houston Independent School District had taken in 889 students, a number expected to grow by 5,000 or more in the coming days, said spokesman Terry Abbott. The district is hiring retired teachers and certified instructors from Louisiana, and getting breaks on textbooks from publishers, he said.

Teachers and administrators are also trying to make “Katrina kids” and their parents feel at home.

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