The trickle of immigrants from the Gulf Coast States has begun in Missouri and schools are being told to get ready for many, many more. About ten school districts already have reported refugee children from the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina are showing up. The State Education Department’s Craig Rector says every school district is ready because every district already has a homeless coordinator on staff. The Department is telling school districts there should be no barriers to enrolling those children promptly, even if they do not have academic or health records – records which might have been lost in the storm. Rector says counselors might assume more importance in schools getting these hurricane victims. He says everything else about their lives might be in turmoil but school might be the only stable environment left to them.
