Extreme Weather and Natural Hazards

North Carolina

WFAE - September 27, 2025

Due to the unprecedented flooding from Hurricane Helene in September 2024, four school buildings in western North Carolina flooded so severely that students were unable to immediately return to school. Some schools closed temporarily and are back in their buildings, and some are still in transition while awaiting a more permanent home. EdNC spoke with…

South Carolina

South Carolina Public Radio - September 12, 2025

Ensuring the safety of students, staff, and visitors to campuses has surged to the forefront of a national conversation in the wake of now three tragic school shooting events since the beginning of the 2025 academic year. On Aug. 27, two children were killed and multiple people were injured in a shooting during a church…

Arkansas

Arkansas Advocate - September 4, 2025

A Rogers public school that recently reopened after being damaged by severe weather last year received a $20,000 grant Thursday to restock the library’s Spanish-language books lost in the storm.  Greer Lingle Middle School sustained around $18 million in damage following fatal storms that spawned multiple tornadoes across north Arkansas during the 2024 Memorial Day…

Colorado

Aspen Journalism - August 29, 2025

In a town best known for snow and its mountain backdrops, Joe Waneka has what might seem an odd problem to solve. As director of operations for the Aspen School District, he is tasked, in part, with keeping the 1,600 students enrolled in the district’s elementary, middle and high schools cool enough so that heat…

Puerto Rico

NBC News - August 21, 2025

When temperatures soar at a public school on the small Puerto Rican island of Culebra, students scatter in search of relief. During a summer program last month, as outdoor temperatures climbed into the upper 80s, Zedrik, a rising third grader, sat in the schoolyard beside a bush not tall enough to shade him entirely from…

Washington

Bainbridge Island - August 13, 2025

The Bainbridge Island School District is taking advantage of the summer break to retrofit Commodore Options and Ordway Elementary schools, which were identified in a 2021 Department of Natural Resources report as needing seismic safety upgrades. Construction has reached 50% completion for both schools, said Dane Fenwick, BISD director of facilities operations & capital projects.…

North Carolina

Spectrum News 1 - August 11, 2025

Wilson County is two weeks away from the start of another school year. This fall semester brings renewed hope for a smoother start to the year compared to this time last year. On Aug. 8, 2024, an EF-3 tornado tore through the small town of Lucama, located about 45 minutes away from Raleigh.  A middle…

California

LAist - July 31, 2025

As California faces increasingly destructive wildfires, schools should develop more preventative safety measures, experts say. Roughly 6% of California public school students attend a campus located in high or very high Fire Hazard Severity Zones, an EdSource analysis of data from Cal Fire and the Office of the State Fire Marshal found. Of the 10,591…

Missouri

KHQA.com - July 30, 2025

The Lewis County C-1 School District in Missouri celebrated the start of construction for a FEMA project at Highland Elementary School on July 30. This project is more than 12 years in the making. The superintendent says it has been the number one thing the community has asked of him. This is more than just…

Arkansas

KNWA - July 30, 2025

As the school year nears, Waldron’s Middle and Elementary schools are still under renovation after being impacted by storm damage earlier this year. A hailstorm on April 5 damaged the exterior and interior of both schools, as well as a couple of smaller buildings in the district. “It was an overnight storm. And so, we…