By Joseph De Avila and
Arian Campo-Flores
Updated Oct. 2, 2017 4:02 p.m. ET
School districts from Florida to Massachusetts are anticipating an influx of Puerto Rican students displaced by Hurricane Maria and have begun preparations to identify which schools have space and which resources will be needed.
Puerto Rican schools have been closed since the Category 4 hurricane made landfall on Sept. 20, battering the island and knocking out the electrical grid and communication systems. Officials there said schools could open on Oct. 16.
“We are living through a unique, difficult and unprecedented situation that none of us has experienced before,” Julia Keleher, Puerto Rico’s education secretary, told staff members in a letter Friday.
Amid estimates that it will take months for power to return fully across the island, states that have large Puerto Rican populations are expecting that many island residents with financial means will move to the mainland once air travel returns to normal. Edwin Meléndez, director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York, said his conservative estimate is that more than 200,000 children and adults will leave Puerto Rico for the mainland.
“I think the reality is we are going to see, temporarily or permanently, more of our citizens move from the island,” said Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat.
Hassan Abderrahim Jiménez, a teacher at a private school in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, is seriously considering sending his 16-year-old son to the mainland so he doesn’t fall behind in school. He said a friend in Florida is checking on whether a high school in Kissimmee might be able to take his son, but he would also have to figure out a housing situation.
“We know it’s a complicated decision, and we’re evaluating our options,” he said.