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Killeen ISD temporarily enrolls Harvey evacuees

Posted at 12:28 PM, Aug 31, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-01 14:24:23-04

Killeen ISD is extending enrollment to students fleeing their Southeast Texas homes from Hurricane Harvey.

School officials said as of Wednesday, they enrolled around 50 students in the district temporarily. On Thursday, they plan to almost double that number. 

Students enrolled in schools in Harker Heights started classes on Wednesday and students enrolled in schools in Killeen started Thursday.

Executive Director for Student Services Dr. Joseph Welch said the district wanted to make that transition as smooth as possible.

"We took a contingency team out there and we did online enrollment using our online service to get them enrolled we took out our evaluators and our specialist to help evaluate students and make sure that we're getting them the proper support that they need," Welch said.

Welch also said the evacuated students will be transported to and from the shelters by bus. This will keep the children active while helping to make sure students still receive the proper education even while they're away from home.

Sunday, Bell County’s Judge Jon Burrows initially made the announcement that Bell County could be receiving hundreds of evacuees. In efforts to make those evacuees comfortable, the district opened the doors to the former Fairway Middle School as a shelter allowing families to stay together and equipped with everything they need.

“We may start consolidating some of our smaller shelters into this facility here because this facility has a large capacity and has a lot of the things that you can do in one place,” Burrows said.

The former middle school can house more than 600 people at a time.

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