Page 1 GAO-06-680R Educating and Protecting Children 

United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548 

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 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. 

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)

Enclosure 

Page 2 GAO-06-680R Educating and Protecting Children 
Briefing for Congressional Staff Page 2

Gulf Coast Hurricanes: Lessons Learned for

Protecting and Educating Children 

Missing Children page 2 

Child Welfare pages 3-4 

Education page 5 

Appendix: Scope, Methodology, Contributors, 

and Related GAO Reports page 6 

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. 

Why GAO Did This Study

Agency Comments 

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. 

Preliminary

Observations

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. 

o Mississippi 27.0% 

o Louisiana 26.6% 

o Alabama 21.5% 

o 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. 

Briefing Structure
Briefing for Congressional Staff Page 2

• 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. 

Missing 

Children 

Lessons Learned 

• 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. 

Facts on Missing Children 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. 

Finding Missing Children after the Hurricanes 

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

Sept. 30, 2005 Dec. 30, 2005 March 15, 2006 

Number of children

Source: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Date

Number of children reported missing

4,538

2,301

5,072

4,484

5,196 5,196

Number of children recoverd
BBrrieiefing for fing fo Cong r Conre

gsressi sionaonal l StaffeStrasff PaPgae ge35

Child Welfare in Louisiana 

Child 

Welfare 

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 fulltime 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. 
Briefing for Congressional Staff PaPag ge 4e 4

Lessons Learned 

Child 

Welfare 

• 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. 

Child Welfare: Louisiana’s Challenges (cont.) 

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. 
Briefing for Congressional Staff Page 5

Disaster planning that addresses 

large-scale emergencies can speed

the reopening of schools, which is 

vital for community recovery. 

Using the McKinney-Vento

Homeless Assistance Act to enroll 

displaced students in new schools 

can ensure that these students’

education continues. 

Federal flexibility in reporting and 

other requirements would allow

states and districts to focus on

rebuilding.

Education 

Lessons Learned 

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: 

o Louisiana (46,300), 

o Texas (45,200), 

o Mississippi (18,100), 

o Georgia (10,600), and

o 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

Facts on Education 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. 
Briefing for Congressional Staff Page 6

Contributors

If you have any questions

concerning this briefing, please

call XXX at (202) 512-4841.

Other key contributors to this

report were ______, 

___________, _____________

_______________, and 

____________.

_,

Appendix

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. 

Contributors ASconswer pe and Methodology

To do our work, we:

• reviewed federal, state, and local data and elements of their disaster 

plans. 

• interviewed officials from: 

o the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human 

Services; 

o the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; 

o state education officials in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and 

Alabama; and 

o 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: 

o public and private school district officials, 

o 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.