As Sonoma County students settle back into the classroom routines after winter break, school officials will be watching closely for dips in academic performance and attendance, outbursts and other behavioral reactions as they continue to wrestle with the aftermath of October’s wildfires.
Ed Navarro, principal of Rincon Valley Middle School and Santa Rosa Accelerated Charter School, said students showed kindness, camaraderie and support for displaced classmates immediately after the fires. While that support remains visible, he said, some students are starting to feel frustrated and left out as classmates and their families remain settled in nearby neighborhoods while they have to commute. Navarro said the fires destroyed the homes of 126 students.
“Some have bought homes in the neighborhood and are re-establishing their lives, while others are still staying on grandma’s couch or in a hotel,” he said. “That’s causing even more isolation.”
Students are struggling to focus in class, while others are losing their temper more easily with friends in the courtyard, Navarro said.
“They just don’t have the ability to let things roll off their shoulders,” he said. “They have so much on their minds that the smallest things are becoming triggers.”
An estimated 9 million students in nine states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico missed some school in the fall from various natural disasters. Research from the Child & Family Policy Center shows that such chronic absence, defined as missing two days of school a month, “is a proven early warning sign of academic risk and school dropout.”
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