Congress has finally set aside funds for school districts who took in Katrina evacuee schoolchildren, and now local school districts are racing to get paperwork filed before the deadline passes to get reimbursed:
With a federal deadline less than a week away, Texas schools are scrambling to count students and complete stacks of applications to stake their claim on some of the $750 million Congress earmarked for campuses that took in Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
It’s a formidable challenge for Houston-area districts, which have been charged with overseeing reimbursement requests for the roughly 25,000 New Orleans students who enrolled in both public and private schools in the region.
“The clock is ticking. They’re kind of jumping through hoops right now trying to meet deadlines,” said John E. Wilson, a consultant for the Harris County Department of Education’s Center for Safe and Secure Schools.
As part of the Hurricane Education Recovery Act signed by President Bush on Dec. 30, both public and private schools stand to receive up to $6,000 for each regular education student they served and $7,500 for each special education student.
Officials from area school districts said that should be enough to offset the cost of educating the displaced students.
Not only is HISD working to get its paperwork in on time, but HISD has also offered to help private schools within the district’s boundaries file the required applications.
As we all know, Houston-area ISD’s by far took in the majority of Katrina-displaced students, and the financial burden was tremendous. It is welcome news that Congress recognized this burden and authorized the funds to repay these districts.
