| Janet Joyce Tuesday, November 13, 2012 |
The Superstorm that came ashore on Long Island has done more than damaged homes and businesses. This storm has set unprecedented levels of interruption in lives that many people wonder if they will ever get back to normal. Many families have been uprooted by the storm and are living in other school districts. This means the children are having a hard time to get to school on a regular basis. The Lynbrook School System is working to do something about this.
Within the Lynbrook School District alone, many of the students, especially those who live closer to the water in East Rockaway, have been scattered across the region. They have been staying with friends and family in areas that were not hit as hard by the hurricane. At the same time, some Lynbrook School District residents have also opened up their doors to families who were displaced from communities that were devastated. It is a great show of community coming together.
In order to find a way to work with the problem of the children who are displaced in other school districts, Lynbook, as well as other schools, are turning to the McKinney-Vento Act, a federal law that addresses the educational needs of homeless children.
Jonathan Klomp, Lynbrook's administrator for personnel and student support services explained the act by saying, "The act is designed to protect and promote continuity of instruction for students who find themselves either transferring out of [or into] the district due to displacement."
The law not only requires all public schools to expeditiously enroll displaced students who are temporarily living within their district, but it also mandates that they provide transportation to any of their current students who are being sheltered elsewhere but wish to continue their education in their "home district."
As of Thursday morning, the Lynbrook schools have enrolled nine children that have been affected by the hurricane. However, this registration is a bit different than a traditional enrollment. To get around the requirement that residents must present a lengthy list of documentation to prove their residency, the law mandates that districts enroll students first and then follow-up with the parent or guardian to receive the necessary forms. For affected families, documents such as birth certificates may have been ruined when their homes suffered extreme flooding from Sandy.
One problem with the mandate is that it does give districts some leeway when it comes to how they must provide transportation for students who have been displaced to other areas, but whose families want them to continue attending the same school in which they were originally enrolled. The law states that districts can provide the most "cost-effective" means of getting these students to their schools.
Of course, everyone wants the children to be able to get to school. If there is not any school transportation readily available for the student, then some parents have suggested the school districts faciliate an exhange of contact information among displaced families so they could arrange car pools. This seems like a positive move in the right direction.
janetj@longislandyellowpages.com Appears In: Education
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