How to help students, teachers and schools after Harvey

Education foundations are already established; donate there

HOUSTON – Teachers and students headed back to school in Houston ISD and 11 other districts. Some classrooms flooded; and those teachers lost a lot of tools and supplies. Whole school libraries were destroyed on some campuses.

School may look a lot different to many kids going back, but there are ways you can help get them back on track.

Houston ISD and many districts have education foundations already established. When you donate to the HISD Foundation now, you can specify "Harvey" as the purpose of your donation.

The charity is a 501c3; and HISD superintendent Richard Carranza says 100% of the donations will go to HISD students and families.

"We know that there are some schools doing their own Go Fund Me pages, and that's okay too," Carranza told Davis. "People just need to know that those are just for that specific school; and we're looking out for the whole district."

You can donate to similar tax exempt charities in other districts too, like Spring Branch ISD
Katy and Alief.

Communities in Schools has established a disaster relief fund to directly help students and their families. All donations will go directly to the students and families in need at 128 schools in five independent school districts including Aldine, Alief, Fort Bend, Houston, Spring Branch, two charter schools and four Community College campuses.

The Hurricane Harvey Book Club, started by a teacher in Katy, collected hundreds of videos of people reading their favorite books so that schools that lost their collection could play them aloud for their students. The book club is no longer accepting videos, but you can contribute by purchasing a Hurricane Harvey Book Club T-shirt online for $20. Proceeds go to Books Between Kids that helps supply books to at-risk children in Houston.

You can adopt a classroom or ask for someone to adopt your classroom through Sun, Sand and Second Grade. This effort started by a teacher in Florida matches Texas classrooms in need with people who want to help from all across the country.

Feel free to share your classroom Amazon Wish List or GoFundMe page on our Facebook page.


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