U.S. Department of Education Highlights Resources to Support Communities Impacted by Hurricanes
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is highlighting a series of resources available for students, families, borrowers, and schools and institutions of higher education impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. These resources include guidance, on-the-ground support, technical assistance (including in accessing federal resources), and peer-to-peer connections for state and local leaders; resources for recovery needs such as mental health support for students and educators and to restore learning environments; flexibilities to help institutions of higher education continue to manage the federal financial aid programs; and automatically enrolling affected borrowers with missed payments into a natural disaster forbearance. Thanks to regulations issued by the Biden-Harris Administration, this forbearance will count toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness.
The Department is urgently working to support impacted states with recovery efforts. The Department’s Disaster Recovery Unit (DRU) provides leadership, financial and technical resources, and support to assist education communities with recovery following a natural disaster. The DRU also collaborates with Federal recovery partners to support disaster recovery and connects education entities with disaster recovery experts to support specific recovery solutions. Following Hurricane Helene, the DRU reached out to state educational agencies and over 500 institutions of higher education in the impacted disaster areas to inform these entities of financial assistance opportunities, including Project SERV funds, which provide short-term funding for local educational agencies and institutions of higher education that have experienced a violent or traumatic crisis, including weather-related natural disasters, to assist in restoring a safe environment conducive to learning. The Department will conduct similar outreach following Hurricane Milton. The Department is exploring options to offer program flexibilities, including extending grant application windows and waivers.
Assisting Institutions of Higher Education
The Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) has flexibilities that are automatically available to affected institutions of higher education to help their continued management of the federal student aid programs. These flexibilities help schools if they need to adjust their academic calendars, such as due to unexpected closures, and also help students who may need to take a leave of absence. The flexibilities also help students avoid reductions in their federal aid due to any state or federal disaster assistance provided. FSA will also work with affected institutions that need help in other areas, such as paying credit balances.
FSA also provides outreach and support to domestic and foreign higher educational institutions that participate in federal student aid programs, as well as school community stakeholders in the wake of and in response to natural disasters. FSA reaches out to the leadership of schools in impacted regions to determine the school’s operational status, and impact on students and staff and to offer key reminders and information about the special resources and regulatory relief available to institutions affected by disasters. As noted above, institutions of higher education are also eligible for Project SERV funds.
FSA has communicated with hundreds of schools located in the areas impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Those communications included existing Department guidance about how natural disasters impact schools and their administration of financial aid, resources, and links to FEMA disaster aid information. FSA’s communications also included a way for schools to share more information about the disaster’s impact on their campus and submit questions about administrative relief and flexibilities.
Current guidance about natural disaster assistance for institutions that participate in the federal student aid programs is available here.
Assisting K-12 Schools
The Department has offered technical assistance to states and local educational agencies to support recovery efforts and shared critical resources, including those developed by other federal agencies and organizations, to support restoring the teaching and learning environment. The following are some examples of technical assistance offerings the Department provides:
- The National Center for Homeless Education: Operates the Department’s technical assistance and information center for the federal Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program, which can support disaster-impacted entities who have displaced students.
- Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance (TA) Center: Supports education agencies, with their community partners, to manage safety, security, and emergency management programs. The REMS TA Center helps to build the preparedness capacity (including prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery efforts) of schools, school districts, institutions of higher education, and their community partners at the local, state, and federal levels.
- The Center for Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS): Provides States and districts a guide focused on a multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) framework to support students, families, and educators during the transitions back to school during and following a crisis in the manner that prioritizes their health and safety, social and emotional needs, and behavioral and academic growth.
- Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center | Disaster Planning and Trauma Response Page: Provides resources and links from federal agencies and national organizations to help families and children, including those with disabilities, cope with disasters.
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