The state of Connecticut is set to receive more than $10 million from the U.S. Department of Education to help school districts that took in displaced students from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria.
Peter Yazbak, a spokesperson with the Connecticut Department of Education, says the grant covers what it cost the school districts to take in more than 2,000 displaced students during the last school year.
“So that would be for, instance, hiring ELL instruction, trauma support for some of these students who might have lost their homes or just experience the trauma of being in that storm. So this federal money, it’s about $10.6 million, would be dispersed to the individual districts that enrolled students to cover the unexpected cost that they incurred for the last school year.”
It has not yet been determined how Connecticut schools will cover the costs for the new school year. As of June, Yazbak says there were about 1,700 displaced students in the school system.
