From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: COVID-19 and the Challenges for K-12 Schools in Disaster Areas Description: COVID-19 has proven highly disruptive to students and schools this year. But many communities face added disruptions caused by natural disasters--such as hurricanes and wildfires--which can cut electricity and internet access to communities, as well as render school facilities unusable for extended periods of time. We talk with GAO's Jackie Nowicki--an expert on K-12 education and school safety, and a director in our Education, Workforce, and Income Security Team--about her new report on the impacts disasters coupled with COVID-19 have had on schools, and the supports available to these communities. Related GAO Work: GAO-21-62R, Disaster Recovery: COVID-19 Pandemic Intensifies Disaster Recovery Challenges for K-12 Schools Released: October 2020 [Intro Music] [Jackie Nowicki:] Disasters are traumatizing and the pandemic has further strained communities that were already suffering. [Holly Hobbs:] Hi, and welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office--I'm Holly Hobbs. COVID-19 has proven highly disruptive to students and schools this year. But many communities face added disruptions caused by natural disasters--such as hurricanes and wildfires--which can cut electricity and internet access to communities, as well as render school facilities unusable for extended periods of time. Today, we talk with GAO's Jackie Nowicki--an expert on K-12 education and school safety, and a director in our Education, Workforce, and Income Security Team--about her new report on the impacts disasters coupled with COVID-19 have had on schools, and the supports available to these communities. Thank you for joining us Jackie! [Jackie Nowicki:] My pleasure, Holly [Holly Hobbs:] So Jackie, I think we're all aware of the wildfires on the West Coast this fall, and can imagine how that might affect schools in those communities. But what are some of other areas facing dual challenges of COVID-19 and disasters? [Jackie Nowicki:] In the past few years, there have been hundreds of major natural disasters and they've affected every state and several U.S. territories. In our work, we focus on communities affected by disasters in 2018--so the California wildfires, hurricanes in Hawaii and Florida, and Super Typhoon Yutu in the Northern Mariana Islands. And because the disaster recovery can take years, these schools are still trying to get back on their feet when the pandemic hit. Not surprisingly, the pandemic really intensified the challenges that they were already facing. And with communities, nationwide, working on restoring in-person learning during the pandemic, the experiences of these disaster-affected communities may offer some insights that are more broadly applicable today. [Holly Hobbs:] And for your report, you reached out to education officials in some of these communities. What did they tell you about the challenges they face? [Jackie Nowicki:] We heard a lot from superintendents and other school officials about the need for both short and long-term mental health services for students and staff. Disasters are traumatizing, and the pandemic has further strained communities that were already suffering. We also heard a lot about the extended effects of missed classes and learning loss, so for example, students in Sonoma County, California that had already lost about 40 school days due to the wildfires, lost an additional 60 days of class time due to the pandemic. We also heard concerns about staff burnout from nearly every educational official we talked to. When you think about managing stress and logistics of recovery of back-to-back disasters while simultaneously leading schools and teaching kids, these educators have a lot on their plate. [Holly Hobbs:] So we've talked about some of the emotional impacts. What are the financial and physical impacts and how long might those impacts be felt? [Jackie Nowicki:] During our interviews, we heard that many districts were still recovering financially from natural disasters years later. Some of these same districts are facing budget cuts and increased expenses as a result, for example, of the pandemic induced recession, and a need to invest in health and safety equipment. And some districts still have kids in classroom trailers or tents because they're still in the process of rebuilding their school facilities that were damaged by natural disasters. And the pandemic has certainly complicated these efforts, and they expect it to take a really long time to recover. [Music:] [Holly Hobbs:] So we know that students, teachers, and their schools face a number of challenges this fall because of COVID-19. And that some communities are doubly-challenged because of natural disasters. But it also sounds like the combination has resulted in longer-term challenges that could delay recovery times. Jackie, what assistance is available to school systems facing disruptions caused by natural disasters, and has this assistance changed as a result of COVID-19? [Jackie Nowicki:] There are several ways schools can get financial help after disasters, and for this work, we focused specifically on the role of the Department of Education. Since 2017, Education has provided nearly $1.4 billion in grants to help schools with disaster recovery in more than 30 states and U.S. territories. And schools can use these funds in a whole bunch of ways, so everything from providing counseling services to replacing IT systems. But still, the pandemic has sometimes made it more challenging for states, so in some cases they said that it was really difficult to use their disaster grant funds before the funds expired due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Others said that because of the pandemic, their most pressing needs have changed, and they can't use their disaster funds to pay for them. So, for example, food insecurity during the pandemic became a significant challenge for one district we talked to, and they prioritized delivering meals to students over the summer, but they could not use their disaster assistance funds for that purpose. [Holly Hobbs:] And last question Jackie, what's the bottom line of this report? [Jackie Nowicki:] The bottom line is really that the pandemic has not surprisingly compounded some pretty significant challenges that these schools were already facing, and they were already on a long road to recovery due to those natural disasters. The pandemic has strained mental health resources in particular, it's added to missed instructional time, created further financial instability, and in some cases, it's delayed recovery projects that were underway. We plan to look more at these issues in future work. [Holly Hobbs:] That was Jackie Nowicki talking about GAO's recent report about challenges schools face when responding to both COVID-19 and natural disasters. Thank you for your time Jackie! [Jackie Nowicki:] My pleasure Holly. [Holly Hobbs:] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts. And make sure you leave a rating and review to let others know about the work we're doing. For more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at GAO.gov.