Lessons Learned for Protecting and Educating Children after the Gulf Coast Hurricanes
Gao ID: GAO-06-680R May 11, 2006In August and September 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused devastating damage to states along the Gulf Coast. In the aftermath of the storms, many questions were raised about the status of the thousands of children living in the affected areas. We prepared this preliminary information under the Comptroller General's authority to learn more about (1) the number of missing children and the challenges and lessons learned in locating them; (2) the number of foster and other children receiving child welfare services in Louisiana, in particular, who were affected by the storm, and the challenges and lessons learned in locating and serving them; and (3) the number of schoolchildren displaced by the storm, the damage to their schools, and the challenges and lessons learned for educating displaced school-aged children.
Gulf Coast state and local officials and others throughout the country have worked hard to protect and support children affected by the hurricanes. However, a number of lessons learned from these hurricanes could improve future responses to catastrophic events and, in some cases, to other disasters as well. State and local disaster plans could better protect children if they integrated the needs of child welfare and education agencies. For example, schools can reopen more quickly when local relief officials work with school personnel to coordinate how resources will be allocated. With schools in operation, communities can focus on recovery. Moreover, child welfare and education agencies can better prepare for and respond to large-scale disasters by maintaining emergency contact information for staff and foster parents and developing evacuation instructions. Children could benefit from data-sharing agreements among organizations. Agreements to share data on displaced children and families could help speed efforts to locate them. Flexibility in certain federal reporting requirements can allow states and localities to focus more attention on recovery efforts.
GAO-06-680R, Lessons Learned for Protecting and Educating Children after the Gulf Coast Hurricanes
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May 11, 2006:
Congressional Committees:
Subject: Lessons Learned for Protecting and Educating Children after
the Gulf Coast Hurricanes:
In August and September 2005, thousands of children were displaced from
their homes as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Questions were
raised about their safety and the services provided to the most
vulnerable children affected by the hurricanes: unaccompanied minors
and children in foster care. In addition, thousands of school-aged
children requiring educational services were displaced from their
schools.
In view of these circumstances, we conducted work under the Comptroller
General's authority to learn more about the challenges encountered and
lessons learned in:
(1) locating missing children;
(2) locating and serving Louisiana's displaced foster children; and:
(3) reopening K-12 schools and educating displaced school-aged children.
In February 2006, we offered or provided briefings to the staffs of
your committees on our preliminary observations. Enclosed is a briefing
summary.
During the course of our work, officials from the U.S. Departments of
Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education informed us that they are
taking a number of steps to address the challenges that we identified,
and we reflected those actions in our document, where appropriate. As a
result, we are not making any recommendations at this time. We provided
this document to officials from HHS, Education, and the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The officials generally
agreed with our conclusions or provided technical comments that were
incorporated into our document.
We are sending copies of this briefing to the cognizant congressional
committees, HHS and Education. We will make copies available to others
upon request. This briefing also will be available on the GAO Web site
at [Hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov.] Should you or your staff have any
questions, please contact me at (202) 512-7215. Key contributors may be
found on the last page of the briefing.
Signed By:
Cynthia M. Fagnoni:
Managing Director:
Education, Workforce,and Income Security:
List of Committees:
The Honorable Max Baucus:
Ranking Minority Member:
Committee on Finance:
United States Senate:
The Honorable Michael B. Enzi:
Chairman:
The Honorable Edward M. Kennedy:
Ranking Minority Member:
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions:
United States Senate:
The Honorable Wally Herger:
Chairman:
The Honorable Jim McDermott:
Ranking Minority Member:
Subcommittee on Human Resources:
Committee on Ways and Means:
House of Representatives:
(130563):
[End of section]
Enclosure:
Briefing for Congressional Staff:
May 2006:
Gulf Coast Hurricanes: Lessons Learned for Protecting and Educating
Children:
Why GAO Did This Study:
In August and September 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused
devastating damage to states along the Gulf Coast. In the aftermath of
the storms, many questions were raised about the status of the
thousands of children living in the affected areas. We prepared this
preliminary information under the Comptroller General‘s authority to
learn more about (1) the number of missing children and the challenges
and lessons learned in locating them; (2) the number of foster and
other children receiving child welfare services in Louisiana, in
particular, who were affected by the storm, and the challenges and
lessons learned in locating and serving them; and (3) the number of
schoolchildren displaced by the storm, the damage to their schools, and
the challenges and lessons learned for educating displaced school-aged
children.
Summary of Findings:
Gulf Coast state and local officials and others throughout the country
have worked hard to protect and support children affected by the
hurricanes. However, a number of lessons learned from these hurricanes
could improve future responses to catastrophic events and, in some
cases, to other disasters as well.
* State and local disaster plans could better protect children if they
integrated the needs of child welfare and education agencies. For
example, schools can reopen more quickly when local relief officials
work with school personnel to coordinate how resources will be
allocated. With schools in operation, communities can focus on
recovery. Moreover, child welfare and education agencies can better
prepare for and respond to large-scale disasters by maintaining
emergency contact information for staff and foster parents and
developing evacuation instructions.
* Children could benefit from data-sharing agreements among
organizations. Agreements to share data on displaced children and
families could help speed efforts to locate them.
* Flexibility in certain federal reporting requirements can allow
states and localities to focus more attention on recovery efforts.
Background:
Prior to the hurricanes:
* Relative to other states in the nation, the four affected
states”Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas”had among the highest
percentages of children in poverty based on 2000 data from the Census
Bureau.
- Mississippi 27.0%;
- Louisiana 26.6%;
- Alabama 21.5%;
- Texas 20.5%.
* Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi students scored lower than the
national average on the reading and math National Assessment of
Educational Progress; Texas students scored about the same as the
national average in reading and slightly higher in math.
Agency Comments:
We provided this document to officials from the U.S. Departments of
Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education, as well as the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The officials
generally agreed with our conclusions or provided technical comments
that were incorporated into our findings.
Missing Children:
Facts on Missing Children:
* After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, approximately 5,200 children were
reported missing to NCMEC.
* All of the instances of children reported missing to NCMEC were
resolved by March 2006.
Missing Children Challenges:
The reasons children were separated from their families are not fully
understood, but in many cases children were evacuated separately from
parents and were sent to different shelters. Because of NCMEC‘s staff
of trained investigators, some of whom are retired law enforcement
officers, with experience finding children at risk, the Department of
Justice asked the organization to help reunite children and families.
NCMEC faced some challenges, namely:
Disaster Planning and Service Delivery:
* NCMEC had to adapt its definition of missing children and who can
report them missing. Previously only law enforcement agencies, parents,
or legal guardians could report children missing. After the storm, the
center accepted reports from nonparents of children displaced by the
storm.
* Because of large call volumes, NCMEC added staff and phone lines to
handle hurricane-specific calls.
Data and Record Management:
* Officials from NCMEC told us that both the American Red Cross and
FEMA had information on the location of children in their databases,
but it was difficult to obtain this information because of privacy
concerns. NCMEC signed memorandums of understanding with both
organizations, but the negotiations and review process to complete
these memorandums slowed efforts to locate the children. The U.S.
Postal Service made data available to NCMEC to help find missing
children.
* All of the children reported missing were not necessarily
unaccompanied or in harm‘s way. Because nonguardians, such as
neighbors, could report a child as missing, some children who were safe
with their families or other guardians were probably reported missing.
Figure: Finding Missing Children after the Hurricanes:
[See PDF for Image]
Source: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
[End of image]
Lessons Learned:
* Having an adequate number of trained staff present during a large-
scale evacuation can help ensure that families are kept together.
Child welfare workers in Louisiana were deployed to evacuation sites
for Hurricane Rita to ensure that children were placed with their
guardians.
* Standing agreements for data sharing among organizations tracking
missing persons and the American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) can help locate missing persons more quickly.
* Trained investigators and retired law enforcement officials can help
locate missing children after disasters.
Child Welfare:
Child Welfare in Louisiana:
Foster Children:
* Of Louisiana‘s 5,000 foster children, close to 2,000 were displaced
by Hurricane Katrina.
* Approximately 370 foster children were displaced from the state, and
about 150 remained outside of Louisiana in 19 states as of April 2006.
* All foster children were located by November 2005.
Other Child Welfare Services:
* Prior to the hurricanes, approximately 1,885 families were under
investigation for abuse and neglect, and 364 were receiving family
services in the affected areas.
* After the hurricanes, Louisiana ran a shelter for 24 unaccompanied
children.
Staff:
* As many as 900 employees from Louisiana‘s Department of Social
Services (DSS) were diverted to set up and staff emergency shelters for
over 5 weeks, reducing the time available to support child welfare
services. As soon as the shelters began to empty and workers returned
to full- time child welfare work, Hurricane Rita approached the state
and called for another evacuation and staff to shelter duty.
* About 640 of the state‘s social workers were also initially displaced
from the heavily affected communities, making it even more difficult to
find displaced foster children.
Child Welfare: Louisiana's Challenges:
Louisiana child welfare officials faced a number of challenges in
locating and serving displaced foster children and other children
needing services or protection.
Disaster Planning:
Louisiana officials told us that the state‘s disaster plans did not
anticipate such a large-scale event. Foster parents knew that they were
required to contact their social workers when leaving the state, but
phones were inoperable and social workers were also displaced. Social
workers‘ phones were not always operational for weeks after the storm
and could not relay the information to the state agency. The state
publicized a toll-free hotline for foster parents to communicate with
state officials. Officials relied on foster parents to call the toll-
free number to report the location of the foster children and any
special needs that they or their foster children may have needed.
State officials were also able to send monthly foster payment checks to
foster parents at their new location.
Data and Record Management:
* Louisiana officials also told us it was difficult to contact foster
parents because their emergency contact information was limited and
located in case records that were inaccessible for weeks following the
storm. In addition, the state was in the process of creating a
statewide child welfare information system but did not have extensive
case information in a central database.
* In some localities, social workers recreated case files from memory
and other documentation because close to 300 current case files had
been destroyed and even more were inaccessible. As a result of limited
access to child welfare case files and other disruptions, some court
proceedings related to adoptions and reunifications had to be delayed.
* Louisiana officials told us that it was difficult to get information
from the American Red Cross and FEMA on families they were unable to
locate. Louisiana officials said they had to sign a memorandum of
understanding with American Red Cross officials which stated that the
agency would contact the Red Cross shelters prior to entering to search
for foster children. Louisiana officials said that by the time the
memorandum was approved, the American Red Cross had closed its
shelters.
Service Delivery:
* Foster children: All out-of-state foster family cases are being
managed by caseworkers in Louisiana with limited supervision provided
by caseworkers in the host state. Many foster families who were living
out of state faced problems finding providers to accept their Medicaid
card for mental health services and medication. When it has needed to
do so, Louisiana has contracted for services such as short-term
caretakers for foster children to help displaced foster families. In
addition, heightened levels of stress can increase the likelihood of
abuse or neglect, which can increase the need for child protective
services and foster parents. In some cases, foster parents were unable
to cope with the effects of the storm and returned children to the
child welfare agency.
* Children receiving other child welfare services: Many families were
receiving services while their child was residing in their home, and
other families were under investigation for abuse and neglect. State
officials placed a priority on the cases of children determined to be
at high risk of abuse and focused their initial effort on locating and
serving these families. In cases where they were unable to find the
families, officials requested and received assistance from NCMEC.
Concerns over Federal Assistance:
* State officials told us that they were concerned about how their
future federal funding would be affected in the aftermath of the storm
and whether additional funds would be made available to them to help
with recovery efforts. For example, some funding elements are linked to
goals in a program improvement plan (PIP) that they were unlikely to
meet. State officials told us that HHS has addressed their concerns by
renegotiating the PIP in light of the effects of the storms.
* State officials also requested from HHS a number of waivers for other
statutory requirements for federal child welfare programs. HHS
officials told us that they did not have the authority to grant the
requested waivers for certain child welfare programs, but issued an
information memorandum reminding states of the flexibilities that
existed within some of the current program structure. In the aftermath
of the hurricanes, HHS officials are working with the gulf coast states
to assess the needs of the states and whether HHS may need additional
waiver authority to respond to future events. In addition to its
weekly conference calls with the states following Hurricane Katrina,
HHS has provided additional funding to its sponsored resource centers
to provide training and technical assistance to the states affected by
the hurricanes.
* HHS officials told us they needed the state to provide frequent
information on the status of children under its care. However, state
officials told us that HHS‘s initial reporting and data requirements
diverted time and attention from their more immediate needs.
Lessons Learned:
* Future state disaster plans should include evacuation information and
instructions for foster parents and social workers. Louisiana is in
the process of conducting foster parent emergency preparedness courses.
In addition, HHS is planning a conference focusing on disaster
preparedness and recovery in which child welfare officials from the
affected states can share lessons learned with officials from other
states.
* Updated emergency contact information and automated case file systems
could help locate and serve foster children more quickly.
* Standing agreements among state child welfare officials and the
American Red Cross and FEMA on data sharing and coordination could
expedite recovery efforts.
Education:
Facts on Education:
Displaced Students:
* Thousands of students, from kindergarten to the 12th grade (K-12),
were displaced by the hurricanes.
* Schools from nearly every state enrolled some of the more than
150,000 displaced K-12 students in fall 2005.
* The five states with the most displaced students were:
- Louisiana (46,300);
- Texas (45,200);
- Mississippi (18,100);
- Georgia (10,600), and:
- Alabama (7,100).
* The nationwide number of displaced students has fallen slightly since
the fall of 2005.
Damage to Facilities:
* Louisiana officials said that 29 schools were destroyed, and about
half of the state‘s schools were damaged.
* Mississippi officials said that 16 schools were destroyed, and over
half of the state‘s districts reported some damage.
Education: Challenges for the Affected States:
State and local education officials faced challenges in restarting
schools and educating displaced students. We identified the following
challenges:
Disaster planning:
Some districts had crisis plans, but not for large-scale disasters in
which the population did not immediately return home. In these
districts, officials had difficulty locating employees, which was
essential to reopening schools. School district officials needed to
work closely with other local officials to focus resources on reopening
schools.
Service delivery:
States, with assistance from Education, required districts to
immediately enroll displaced students through the McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act. Districts generally enrolled displaced
students quickly under difficult circumstances. The large number of
displaced students in some districts led to a strain on classroom
space, books, teachers, school buses, bus drivers, and counseling
services. Finding individuals with the expertise to help special-needs
students was also difficult, especially in small districts.
Data/records management:
Displaced students‘ records were often not immediately available to
their new districts. As a result, districts often enrolled students
based on information provided by parents about grade level, disability
status, and other factors. Louisiana and Texas collaborated to
eventually make displaced Louisiana students‘ records available to
authorized Texas personnel. Mississippi student records, including
academic records, were automated and made available to students‘ new
districts.
Financial difficulties:
Districts in areas directly affected by the storms and those that
enrolled displaced students faced financial challenges, including
providing services to additional students. As a result, Congress
appropriated $1.4 billion to help reopen elementary and secondary
schools and serve displaced students. The first installment was made
available to states in January 2006; Education plans to release the
final installment in May 2006. Although grateful for assistance, state
and local officials said that they would still bear a significant
financial burden as a result of the storms.
* Property tax revenues, a key funding source for schools, will likely
be undercut in areas with property damage. State funding for schools
may also be undercut by the effects of the storms.
* State and local officials indicated that displaced students often
require additional services, such as counseling and remediation.
* Federal assistance for displaced students under the Hurricane
Education Recovery Act is available for 1 year only, yet state
officials reported that a large number of displaced students are likely
to remain in their new districts.
Federal flexibility:
State and district officials expressed the need for flexibility in
meeting the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
(NCLBA). Upon request of the affected states, Education quickly granted
some flexibility regarding certain NCLBA requirements. State officials
were concerned, however, about the effect of displaced students on
their NCLBA academic accountability results. Education officials said
that any decisions about how the students will be included in these
results will be made in upcoming months.
Appendix:
Contributors:
If you have any questions concerning this briefing, please call Cindy
Fagnoni, Managing Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security,
at (202) 512- 7215 or Kay Brown, Assistant Director, Education,
Workforce, and Income Security, at (202) 512-3674.
Other key contributors to this briefing were Scott Spicer and Anjali
Tekchandani.
Scope and Methodology:
To do our work, we:
* reviewed federal, state, and local data and elements of their
disaster plans.
* interviewed officials from:
- the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services;
- the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children;
- state education officials in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and
Alabama; and;
- state child welfare officials in Louisiana, Texas, and Alabama.
(Mississippi state child welfare officials were not available to
discuss how the Gulf Coast hurricanes affected children within their
child welfare system.)
* conducted a site visit to Louisiana, the state with the highest
number of displaced and missing children; in addition to the state
education and child welfare officials, we interviewed:
- public and private school district officials;
- social workers and foster parents.
* conducted our work from October 2005 to March 2006 in accordance with
generally accepted government auditing standards.
Much of the data regarding numbers of children affected are officials‘
best estimates. Determining exact numbers has been difficult because of
the extent of the storm damage and the large numbers of displaced
people.
Related GAO Reports:
Hurricane Katrina: GAO‘s Preliminary Observations Regarding
Preparedness, Response, and Recovery, GAO-06-442T, Washington, D.C.:
March 8, 2006.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Provision of Charitable Assistance, GAO-06-
297T, Washington, D.C.: December 13, 2005.
September 11: More Effective Collaboration Could Enhance Charitable
Organizations‘ Contributions in Disasters, GAO-03-259, Washington,
D.C.: December 19, 2002.
Disaster Management: Improving the Nation‘s Response to Catastrophic
Disasters, RCED-93-186, Washington, D.C.: July 23, 1993.
