ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Hundreds of Puerto Rican children displaced by Hurricane Maria are expected to enroll in Florida public schools this year.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that most of the island's 1,112 public schools are inoperable due to hurricane damage. Schools throughout Florida are preparing for perhaps thousands of new students.
Ten-year-old Samiliz Ruiz Collazo and her 14-year-old brother Mizraim arrived in central Florida on Friday.
Their home's water cistern had been ripped off the roof by the storm, and they had no power. So their parents sent the children from Puerto Rico to stay with their grandmother, who lives in Deltona in Volusia County.
Volusia County public schools' spokeswoman Nancy Wait ways the county has overestimated the number of students they would receive, so expects that they'll have plenty of space.
