While the post-Harvey educational context differs from New Orleans – which experienced a mandatory evacuation, major loss of life, and a state takeover of the school system – some of the insights gained as Katrina kids have grown up can help guide school officials in both the flooded Texas districts and the districts welcoming displaced students.
For one, the number of moves a student has to make can chip away at educational progress. A report five years after Katrina noted that 34 percent of the affected middle- and high-school students were at least one grade level behind in school, compared to 19 percent of all children in the South.
They were also 4.5 times more likely than their peers nationwide to have symptoms consistent with serious emotional disturbance, according to the study, by the Children’s Health Fund, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and the National Center for Disaster Preparedness.
