New Haven preps for Puerto Rican students displaced by hurricane

NEW HAVEN — The school district is preparing to accept students from Puerto Rico displaced after Hurricane Maria’s devastating strike on the island.

Chief Operating Officer for New Haven Public Schools William Clark on Tuesday said the district is preparing to accept students from Puerto Rico, though little information about how many students the district may receive was available.

“It’s not a situation where there’s a specific number that we know are coming,” Clark said. “It’s very much more individual and personal.”

Clark said the district recently completed its enrollment process, which means it has a good grasp of its student population, placement and how resources are allocated.

The district has about 22,000 students, with roughly 15 to 20 percent who are English Language Learners, Clark said. Faculty is well-trained with working with Spanish-speaking students especially, Clark said. Students arriving from Puerto Rico may also be bilingual and speak English in addition to Spanish, he added.

“Any folks who come to our city, we’ll do our best. If that means opening up classrooms, that’s what we’ll do,” Clark said.

Tests are also available to help determine a student’s academic standing if their academic documentation isn’t readily available, Clark said.

“We’re pretty good at making adjustments and finding space for different issues that may (come),” Clark said. “I’ve already reached out and heard back from schools who said they can re-purpose a room, make adjustments.”

District staff has been “sensitive,” to the situation in Puerto Rico, which has left hundreds of thousands without power or proper drinking water.

“We have a lot of Puerto Rican staff and Puerto Rican administrators,” Clark said. “They’re very sensitive to it.”

City spokesman Laurence Grotheer said Tuesday over email the city would accept displaced students, with schools officials, “already busy identifying available spaces to be used should it be necessary to put that space into use.”

“New Haven is well-suited to accept displaced students from Puerto Rico given the number of English Language Learners already enrolled and the district’s ability to accommodate and teach them,” Grotheer said.

Not all ELL students are Spanish-speakers, however. Clark points these students include pupils whose first languages is something other than English or Spanish. Clark said closet situation to a potential influx of Puerto Rican students are students who have arrived in New Haven from war-torn nations like Syria.

Clark said the district’s work with IRIS, which helps relocate refugee populations, has given them some background on what to expect when a surge of students arrive from out of the district.

“That was managed by the federal government and basically, we got a small piece of a much larger puzzle,” Clark said.