Getting Lee County students out of shelters and back into class

School staff is inside an emergency shelter helping students get back into the classroom after Hurricane Ian.

There are 87 children inside the North Fort Myers shelter, the school district gave WINK News the numbers on Tuesday.

There are dozens of kids in that shelter between the ages of 1 and 19, and it hasn’t been easy for them to return to school.

And 55 of them are enrolled in Lee County schools, leaving 32 kids leftover.

The district is working to determine which of those kids are eligible to be enrolled. The school board had an agenda briefing Tuesday afternoon, and at the very end, one of the school board members, Betsy Vaughn, asked the superintendent to speak about the shelters.

Dr. Christopher Bernier, the superintendent for Lee County schools,  discussed transportation and how those students get to school.

“We have students that we are in the midst of resourcing… those students, both formally and informally, they have asked for support from student enrollments, our homeless division, we also have transportation. We’ve figured out student enrollment has helped us figure out some additional school sites for those young people if they choose to stay closer to their shelter; we have bus stops now set up nearby, and we’re resourcing those families and getting to them and making sure that they’re they’re getting their children back into school,” Bernier said. “There are some students there, as I shared with you, as board members that are not of school age. So you know, we don’t have a solution for them. But our community and student services division is helping those families find the resources they need for those young people as well.”

The superintendent also mentioned he is going to be giving a detailed hurricane update and talking about the shelters at the Tuesday meeting at 6 p.m.