🕷️ Crawler Inspector

URL Lookup

Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 190 (from laksa153)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa190.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/09/wildfire-california-schools/\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/09/wildfire-california-schools/\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/education\/k-12-education\/2025\/09\/wildfire-california-schools\/","crawl_time":1776067670,"first_indexed_time":1757524023,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"org,calmatters!\/education\/k-12-education\/2025\/09\/wildfire-california-schools\/ s443","src_root_hash":"6609515817202850990","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"Years after CA’s deadliest wildfire, these schools still recovering - CalMatters","meta_descriptions":["Even as Paradise gradually rebuilds schools lost to the 2018 wildfire, officials have struggled to get kids on track academically."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"In summary\nOne of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade.\nCalMatters is collaborating with The Associated Press, Honolulu Civil Beat, Blue Ridge Public Radio, and Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico to examine how school communities are recovering from the disruption of natural disasters.\nNearly seven years after\nParadise was ravaged by wildfire\n, the foothill town smells like pine trees again. New homes are sprouting up on once-scorched lots. Construction trucks rumble through neighborhoods. An ice cream shop recently opened around the corner from the newly rebuilt high school. \nBut in the town’s classrooms, recovery has been more complicated — and much slower. Even as Paradise gradually rebuilds schools lost to California’s 2018 Camp Fire, officials have found getting kids on track academically — and recreating a tight-knit, thriving school community — is a lot tougher than just flipping on the lights at a new campus.\n“We’ll get there, but we have not yet recovered,” said Superintendent Tom Taylor before he retired in May. “We’re not yet where we want to be.”\nOne of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade. Damaged schools, lost homes and layers of trauma have left a mark on thousands of children — a scenario sure to continue as climate change makes these events more frequent and more intense. \nThe challenges that persist in Paradise are a reminder of how long learning recovery can take — and a lesson on how schools can give traumatized kids a better chance of thriving long term. \nIt’s also a lesson on how to balance mental health and academics in the years following a disaster — and a glimpse into the challenges facing schools in Los Angeles after last year’s fires. For most students, the Camp Fire and its aftermath made it almost impossible to focus on schoolwork. Schools pushed academics aside in favor of mental health, a move that most agreed was necessary but set students back months if not years academically. \nA firefighter searches for human remains in a trailer park destroyed in the Camp Fire in Paradise on Nov. 16, 2018. Photo by John Locher, AP Photo\n“People think, natural disaster — mental health. They don’t think about the academic component to it,” said Carrie Dawes, health and wellness coordinator for Paradise Unified. “You put that aside when you have a little kiddo crying because they don’t have a house to live in. You’re not going to say, ‘OK, snap out of it. We’ve got math to do.’”\nCamp Fire left students in a lingering academic malaise\nIn the Paradise disaster’s wake, students found themselves moving frequently. Schools were temporarily housed in unusual places — hardware stores, warehouses, churches. Nearly everyone was consumed by anxiety and grief. Learning fell to the wayside.\nKenny Michael, a high school senior, was in fifth grade when the fire erupted. Although her immediate family was safe, some beloved neighbors died. Michael spent months grappling with family strife, loss and stress, including over her grandmother’s missing cats.\n“It wasn’t just a matter of the fire hitting,” Michael said. “It was all this other stuff, too.” \nOnce an enthusiastic learner, Michael failed fifth grade and lost interest in school, saying she was too distracted and exhausted to concentrate on classroom lessons. She’s now living with her grandmother in Magalia, a small community adjacent to Paradise, and attends an online school. She takes solace in talking to friends and writing horror and fantasy stories — about fire. \nBut she has no immediate plans to attend college after she graduates this year.\nKenny Michael outside of the Boys & Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\nThis is typical for Paradise teens. Last year, only\n13% of graduating seniors\nin Paradise Unified met the entrance requirements for California’s public universities or completed a career training program, compared with 45% statewide. Last year, not one student from Paradise Unified enrolled as a freshman at the University of California.\nTest scores reflect the academic malaise, prolonged by the pandemic. Among eighth graders, only 11% met the state’s standard for math. Just 18% of sixth graders were reading at grade level. The numbers were even worse for low-income students.\nREAD NEXT\nThe statistics show that, even once the immediate effects of the fire subsided, academics continued their downward spiral. \nBefore the Camp Fire roared through Butte County in November 2018, Paradise was a quiet, woodsy town filled with families and retirees. There was a movie theater, a bowling alley, a pet store and a Foster’s Freeze. Everyone loved the\nbeer brittle at Joy Lyn’s candy shop\n. In April, residents celebrated Gold Nugget Days with a parade, chili cook-off and a Miss Gold Nugget contest.  \nWithin a few hours, all of that was gone. The Gold Rush-era town was almost entirely wiped out in the fire. Eighty-five people died, including some in their cars as they tried to escape. More than 18,000 buildings burned, including most of the town’s dozen schools. At least 26,000 people were displaced.\nSchools began the long process of recovery as the chaos began to settle: locating students, finding new facilities, assessing the damage and getting academics back on track after nearly a month of canceled classes. \nIt’s been a protracted process. \nAn illustrated map of Paradise at Achieve Charter School of Paradise in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\nFirst:\nStudents play on the playground at Achieve Charter School of Paradise.\nLast:\nAn empty lot in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\nDuring the 2018-19 school year, the Paradise Unified School District reported 154 closure days across its dozen schools as a result of the Camp Fire, impacting about 4,200 students, according to\ndata analysis\nby CalMatters. But the impacts of the Camp Fire were far reaching, impacting nearly 1 million students across the state — 15% of all students that year — as drifting smoke prompted more than 1,600 schools to close.\nIn the following five years, Paradise schools reported up to 10 closure days a year, mostly from winter storms and shutting off the power to lower fire risks on dry and windy days.\nSince 2022-23, kids in California have lost more than 3.5 million days of learning because of disasters, according to UndauntedK12, a policy and research group. And that learning loss is magnified because of the stress associated with such catastrophes. \nIt’s not uncommon for students to miss school after a natural disaster, either because they’ve suddenly become homeless or due to mental health struggles, or both. But disaster-related absenteeism can take an especially steep toll on students’ learning, according to\nresearch from the NWEA\n, a not-for-profit education research firm. Middle schoolers who lose a week of school due to extreme weather actually miss three weeks of progress in reading and almost four weeks in math, researchers found, most likely due to trouble concentrating.\nIt’s a concern facing a growing number of schools nationwide.\nSacred Hearts School third-grade students read a book during an English language arts class at their temporary school site at Sacred Hearts Mission Church in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Oct. 3, 2023. Photo by Mengshin Lin, AP Photo\nIn North Carolina, some students lost two months’ worth of class this past academic year because of both Hurricane Helene last September and other extreme weather events. The historic Category 4 storm damaged tens of thousands of homes and numerous school buildings, causing mass displacement and academic setbacks. \nIn Hawaii, the deadly August 2023 Lahaina wildfires resulted in students at four schools losing at least five weeks of learning days. At King Kamehameha III Elementary, a historic elementary school that burned down in the fires, kids lost more than 50 days of instruction. \nThe compound effects of missed class time are evident in Lahaina. Students’ test scores took a sharp dip in the school year after the disaster as kids transitioned between online classes, learning hubs and schools outside of West Maui. Only 29% of King Kamehameha III’s students tested proficient in math in spring 2024, for example, compared with 46% the year before. \nEven at the three Lahaina public schools that remained standing after the fires, students weren’t able to return to the campuses until mid-October because of debris cleanup and environmental testing.  \nStudents struggled to find motivation in school or attended class sporadically before the fires, according to Lahainaluna High School teacher Jarrett Chapin, and the disaster made matters worse. In the 2023-24 school year, 28% of Lahainaluna students were proficient in English, compared with nearly 50% the year before the fire. Only 5% of kids tested proficient in math. \nFinding normalcy can be a struggle after a disaster\nIn Paradise, even as the town’s schools set about rebuilding damaged campuses and tending to students and families, the community faced another reality: It would never be the same.\nCasey Taylor, Achieve Charter School superintendent, described the first few months after the fire as the “hero phase,” where the community pulled together and vowed to resurrect their town. “Paradise Strong” and “We Will Rebuild” signs proliferated. \nBut then a more difficult period ensued, rife with disillusionment. Fire survivors got tired of living out of suitcases, and many were daunted by the hassle and expense of rebuilding. Old friends and neighbors started moving away, bringing further layers of loss, Taylor said. \n“It hurts,” said Taylor, a Paradise native whose own home was destroyed in the fire. “Your community just starts spiraling.” \nA hopeful sign at the Paradise Cinemas in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\nEnrollment in Paradise Unified has been increasing, but is still less than half what it was before the fire — 1,657 last year, compared with 3,441 in 2017. And the student body is a bit different from before the fire: lower-income, more diverse, more students with disabilities. At least a quarter of the students are new to Paradise entirely and didn’t experience the fire.\nIn retrospect, it’s clear teachers — and not just kids — needed more support to deal with these changes. Taylor and other Paradise school officials now advise other districts that have experienced a natural disaster, and their top suggestion is to make sure the adults are cared for, too.\n“We found that initially, the adults needed attention the most. You think it’s going to be the kids, but they’re so much more resilient in the moment,” said Michelle Zevely, Butte County Office of Education’s deputy superintendent of student programs and education support. \nIn Paradise, the community relied on teachers to serve as a backbone amid the chaos. But many teachers also lost their homes, which meant they were haggling with insurance companies while finding new places to live and commuting long distances — in some cases, more than 100 miles — to be with their students every day.\n“Teachers just needed to talk, or to cry, but they couldn’t because they’re in the classroom and the students were their top priority,” said Tamara Conry, a former math teacher at Paradise Intermediate School who now works for the state teachers union.\nWhen academics fall by the wayside\nAnother lesson from Paradise is the importance of prioritizing academics even when the impulse is to drop everything in favor of mental health. The first few years after the fire, school days were dedicated almost entirely to social-emotional activities as therapists and counselors were dispatched to campuses. \n“In the beginning, we did a lot of art and singing. Taking daily walks. We had baby goats and therapy dogs,” said Taylor. “We spent a lot of time talking about emotions, because that’s what we needed.”\nThe mental-health focus was indeed necessary. Aryah Berkowitz, who was in sixth grade at Achieve charter school when the fire took her home, two of her dogs and her family’s business, said the therapy and teachers’ social-emotional offerings were instrumental in helping her through those difficult years after the fire.\nBut those activities shouldn’t come at the expense of algebra and reading, Taylor said. \nOnce an ambitious student, Berkowitz was suspended twice for acting out after the 2018 disaster. It took her four years, she said, to focus on academics again. But she credits her teachers and counselors in Paradise for helping her through that difficult time, and getting her back on track: She graduated from high school in June and plans to join the Army, pursuing her goal of becoming a K-9 handler.  \nStriking a balance between mental health and academics is essential for recovery efforts to be sustainable, Paradise educators and students say, given how long those efforts take, “People see disasters on the news and they think, ‘Oh, that happened, it’ll be over after a year,” said Myah Poe, a recent graduate of HomeTech charter school in Paradise. She lost her home in the fire and bounced around motels and rentals with her family before they were finally able to rebuild and return to Paradise two years ago. “It’s not. It stays with you for a long, long time.”\nPoe is now planning to enroll in community college and transfer to a four-year university. Her intended major: engineering, inspired in part by the builders resurrecting her hometown.\nFirst:\nStudents in a classroom at Achieve Charter School of Paradise.\nLast:\nMyah Poe, a senior at HomeTech Charter in Paradise, at the Boys & Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\nTaylor remembers the first signs of renewal in Paradise, when the town became something more than an ashy moonscape. First a gas station opened, then a grocery was rebuilt, and eventually the Gold Nugget celebration returned. Even Joy Lyn’s candy shop reopened. \nFor Taylor, the pivotal moment came when her school was able to move back to its original campus after operating out of a church in Chico for three years. Families sobbed when they saw the new playground and the freshly painted school buildings.\nThe next milestone, she and others said, must be academic. Teachers need to set higher expectations, and schools need to provide tutoring and other support to help students catch up. Emotional wellness and academic rigor should not be mutually exclusive, Taylor said. \nIt’s a lesson recovering schools are applying in other disaster-torn parts of the country. \nJust two years after Maui’s devastating fires, for example, Lahainaluna High has doubled down on college preparation for students, introducing an Advanced Placement seminar class last fall that challenged students with intense research projects and writing assignments. The school has also increased enforcement of students’ attendance, contacting parents when their kids don’t show up to class. \nWhile the rigor and heightened accountability have been daunting for some students, many rose to the challenge and are proud of what they’ve achieved in school, according to Chapin, the local high school teacher. “I think our successes this year have crowded out a lot of stuff that could have paralyzed us,” he said. \nParadise Unified broke ground in June on rebuilding its main elementary school. The 46,000-square-foot campus will include a STEM lab, soccer field and outdoor stage. \n“It took almost five years before we could see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Taylor said. “But now the light is shining very bright.”\nStatistical journalist Natasha\nUzcátegui-Liggett of CalMatters contributed to this story.\nREAD NEXT","attrs_markdown":"![](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CalMattersIdeasFestival_Logo_FullColorOnDarkBackground_RGB-1.png)\n\n1. Join the conversation on California's future, May 21.\n\n[GET YOUR TICKET](https:\/\/sites.google.com\/calmatters.org\/2026-ideas-festival\/home)\n\nNonprofit & Nonpartisan News\n\n- [About Us](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about)\n- [Newsletters](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/subscribe-to-calmatters)\n- [Donate](https:\/\/give.calmatters.org\/campaign\/564470\/donate?c_src=website&c_src2=stickynav)\n\n[About](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/) [Newsletters](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/subscribe-to-calmatters\/)\n\n[Search](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/education\/k-12-education\/2025\/09\/wildfire-california-schools\/)\n\n- [Politics](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/politics\/)\n- [Justice](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/justice\/)\n- [Environment](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/environment\/)\n- [Economy](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/economy\/)\n- [Health](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/health\/)\n- [Housing](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/housing\/)\n- [Education](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/education\/)\n\n- [Inequality](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/california-divide\/)\n- [Digital Democracy](https:\/\/calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org\/)\n- [Technology](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/economy\/technology\/)\n- [Commentary](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/commentary\/)\n- [Daily Newsletter](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/newsletters\/whatmatters\/)\n- [Explainers](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/explainers\/)\n- [Data & Trackers](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/data\/)\n\n- [Programs](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/programs\/)\n  - 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The room is decorates with hand-drawn paper butterflies and multi-colored round laterns.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_19.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)\n\nStudents work on activities in a classroom at Achieve Charter School of Paradise in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\n\n**In summary**\n\nOne of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade.\n\n*Welcome to CalMatters, the only nonprofit newsroom devoted solely to covering issues that affect all Californians. Sign up for [WhatMatters](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/subscribe-to-calmatters\/whatmatters) to receive the latest news and commentary on the most important issues in the Golden State.*\n\n*CalMatters is collaborating with The Associated Press, Honolulu Civil Beat, Blue Ridge Public Radio, and Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico to examine how school communities are recovering from the disruption of natural disasters.*\n\nNearly seven years after [Paradise was ravaged by wildfire](https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/paradise-wildfire-california-anniversary-five-years-b4434481c38e6a02e9f2d376ac172b04), the foothill town smells like pine trees again. New homes are sprouting up on once-scorched lots. Construction trucks rumble through neighborhoods. An ice cream shop recently opened around the corner from the newly rebuilt high school.\n\nBut in the town’s classrooms, recovery has been more complicated — and much slower. Even as Paradise gradually rebuilds schools lost to California’s 2018 Camp Fire, officials have found getting kids on track academically — and recreating a tight-knit, thriving school community — is a lot tougher than just flipping on the lights at a new campus.\n\n“We’ll get there, but we have not yet recovered,” said Superintendent Tom Taylor before he retired in May. “We’re not yet where we want to be.”\n\nOne of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade. Damaged schools, lost homes and layers of trauma have left a mark on thousands of children — a scenario sure to continue as climate change makes these events more frequent and more intense.\n\nThe challenges that persist in Paradise are a reminder of how long learning recovery can take — and a lesson on how schools can give traumatized kids a better chance of thriving long term.\n\nIt’s also a lesson on how to balance mental health and academics in the years following a disaster — and a glimpse into the challenges facing schools in Los Angeles after last year’s fires. For most students, the Camp Fire and its aftermath made it almost impossible to focus on schoolwork. Schools pushed academics aside in favor of mental health, a move that most agreed was necessary but set students back months if not years academically.\n\n![A firefighter searches for human remains in a trailer park destroyed in the Camp Fire on Nov. 16, 2018, in Paradise. A lobbyist seeking a \\$1.5-billion state loan to help tens of thousands of victims of devastating California wildfires is leaving his job amid a sexual harassment scandal. The PG\\&E Fire Victim Trust reported Wednesday, April 20, 2022 that Patrick McCallum and the trust “have agreed to part ways.\" Photo by John Locher, AP Photo](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/042222-CAMP-FIRE-AP-JL-CM.jpg?resize=1024%2C668&ssl=1)\n\nA firefighter searches for human remains in a trailer park destroyed in the Camp Fire in Paradise on Nov. 16, 2018. Photo by John Locher, AP Photo\n\n1. Just the right amount of news\n2. Just the right amount of news\n\n1. Get California’s most essential headlines without feeling overwhelmed.\n2. Get California’s most essential headlines without feeling overwhelmed.\n\n![](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Asset-4.png?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1)\n\n“People think, natural disaster — mental health. They don’t think about the academic component to it,” said Carrie Dawes, health and wellness coordinator for Paradise Unified. “You put that aside when you have a little kiddo crying because they don’t have a house to live in. You’re not going to say, ‘OK, snap out of it. We’ve got math to do.’”\n\n## Camp Fire left students in a lingering academic malaise\nIn the Paradise disaster’s wake, students found themselves moving frequently. Schools were temporarily housed in unusual places — hardware stores, warehouses, churches. Nearly everyone was consumed by anxiety and grief. Learning fell to the wayside.\n\nKenny Michael, a high school senior, was in fifth grade when the fire erupted. Although her immediate family was safe, some beloved neighbors died. Michael spent months grappling with family strife, loss and stress, including over her grandmother’s missing cats.\n\n“It wasn’t just a matter of the fire hitting,” Michael said. “It was all this other stuff, too.”\n\nOnce an enthusiastic learner, Michael failed fifth grade and lost interest in school, saying she was too distracted and exhausted to concentrate on classroom lessons. She’s now living with her grandmother in Magalia, a small community adjacent to Paradise, and attends an online school. She takes solace in talking to friends and writing horror and fantasy stories — about fire.\n\nBut she has no immediate plans to attend college after she graduates this year.\n\n![A person, with short ginger hair and with gray headphones resting around their neck, stands in between bushes of lavender and red flower while posing for a photo.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_53.jpg?resize=819%2C1024&ssl=1)\n\nKenny Michael outside of the Boys & Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\n\nThis is typical for Paradise teens. Last year, only [13% of graduating seniors](https:\/\/www.caschooldashboard.org\/reports\/04615310000000\/2024) in Paradise Unified met the entrance requirements for California’s public universities or completed a career training program, compared with 45% statewide. Last year, not one student from Paradise Unified enrolled as a freshman at the University of California.\n\nTest scores reflect the academic malaise, prolonged by the pandemic. Among eighth graders, only 11% met the state’s standard for math. Just 18% of sixth graders were reading at grade level. The numbers were even worse for low-income students.\n\n## READ NEXT\n[![Why Newsom invited Trump to visit LA fire zones amid worries he’ll block disaster aid](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/010825_Newsom-Palisades-Fire_GETTY_CM_01.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/environment\/wildfires\/2025\/01\/trump-los-angeles-fire-aid-newsom\/)\n\n### [Why Newsom invited Trump to visit LA fire zones amid worries he’ll block disaster aid](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/environment\/wildfires\/2025\/01\/trump-los-angeles-fire-aid-newsom\/)\nJanuary 10, 2025\n\nJanuary 13, 2025\n\nThe statistics show that, even once the immediate effects of the fire subsided, academics continued their downward spiral.\n\n## Disaster-related absences take a steep toll on learning\nBefore the Camp Fire roared through Butte County in November 2018, Paradise was a quiet, woodsy town filled with families and retirees. There was a movie theater, a bowling alley, a pet store and a Foster’s Freeze. Everyone loved the [beer brittle at Joy Lyn’s candy shop](https:\/\/www.joylynscandies.com\/). In April, residents celebrated Gold Nugget Days with a parade, chili cook-off and a Miss Gold Nugget contest.\n\nWithin a few hours, all of that was gone. The Gold Rush-era town was almost entirely wiped out in the fire. Eighty-five people died, including some in their cars as they tried to escape. More than 18,000 buildings burned, including most of the town’s dozen schools. At least 26,000 people were displaced.\n\nSchools began the long process of recovery as the chaos began to settle: locating students, finding new facilities, assessing the damage and getting academics back on track after nearly a month of canceled classes.\n\nIt’s been a protracted process.\n\n![A close-up view of an illustrative map that shows notable places in Paradise, California.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_21.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\nAn illustrated map of Paradise at Achieve Charter School of Paradise in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\n\n![A wide view of students playing on an asphalt playground on a clear day. Trees, dirt and some growing vegetation can be seen nearby. The top of a wired fence can be seen in the foreground.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_16.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\n![An empty lot with dirt and gravel on it. A small for sale sign can be seen in the foreground.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_44.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\n**First:** Students play on the playground at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. **Last:** An empty lot in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\n\nDuring the 2018-19 school year, the Paradise Unified School District reported 154 closure days across its dozen schools as a result of the Camp Fire, impacting about 4,200 students, according to [data analysis](https:\/\/disasterdays.calmatters.org\/california-school-closures\/school-district\/paradise-unified\/) by CalMatters. But the impacts of the Camp Fire were far reaching, impacting nearly 1 million students across the state — 15% of all students that year — as drifting smoke prompted more than 1,600 schools to close.\n\nIn the following five years, Paradise schools reported up to 10 closure days a year, mostly from winter storms and shutting off the power to lower fire risks on dry and windy days.\n\nSince 2022-23, kids in California have lost more than 3.5 million days of learning because of disasters, according to UndauntedK12, a policy and research group. And that learning loss is magnified because of the stress associated with such catastrophes.\n\nIt’s not uncommon for students to miss school after a natural disaster, either because they’ve suddenly become homeless or due to mental health struggles, or both. But disaster-related absenteeism can take an especially steep toll on students’ learning, according to [research from the NWEA](https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/2024\/how-to-meet-student-needs-following-inclement-weather-related-school-closures\/), a not-for-profit education research firm. Middle schoolers who lose a week of school due to extreme weather actually miss three weeks of progress in reading and almost four weeks in math, researchers found, most likely due to trouble concentrating.\n\nIt’s a concern facing a growing number of schools nationwide.\n\n![A pocket of sunlight illuminates a elementary-age student sitting on a table as they read a book while surrounded by other students. The tables are place within an outdoor pavilion.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/100323_Lahaina-Fire-School_AP_CM_01.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\nSacred Hearts School third-grade students read a book during an English language arts class at their temporary school site at Sacred Hearts Mission Church in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Oct. 3, 2023. Photo by Mengshin Lin, AP Photo\n\nIn North Carolina, some students lost two months’ worth of class this past academic year because of both Hurricane Helene last September and other extreme weather events. The historic Category 4 storm damaged tens of thousands of homes and numerous school buildings, causing mass displacement and academic setbacks.\n\nIn Hawaii, the deadly August 2023 Lahaina wildfires resulted in students at four schools losing at least five weeks of learning days. At King Kamehameha III Elementary, a historic elementary school that burned down in the fires, kids lost more than 50 days of instruction.\n\nThe compound effects of missed class time are evident in Lahaina. Students’ test scores took a sharp dip in the school year after the disaster as kids transitioned between online classes, learning hubs and schools outside of West Maui. Only 29% of King Kamehameha III’s students tested proficient in math in spring 2024, for example, compared with 46% the year before.\n\nEven at the three Lahaina public schools that remained standing after the fires, students weren’t able to return to the campuses until mid-October because of debris cleanup and environmental testing.\n\nStudents struggled to find motivation in school or attended class sporadically before the fires, according to Lahainaluna High School teacher Jarrett Chapin, and the disaster made matters worse. In the 2023-24 school year, 28% of Lahainaluna students were proficient in English, compared with nearly 50% the year before the fire. Only 5% of kids tested proficient in math.\n\n## Finding normalcy can be a struggle after a disaster\nIn Paradise, even as the town’s schools set about rebuilding damaged campuses and tending to students and families, the community faced another reality: It would never be the same.\n\nCasey Taylor, Achieve Charter School superintendent, described the first few months after the fire as the “hero phase,” where the community pulled together and vowed to resurrect their town. “Paradise Strong” and “We Will Rebuild” signs proliferated.\n\nBut then a more difficult period ensued, rife with disillusionment. Fire survivors got tired of living out of suitcases, and many were daunted by the hassle and expense of rebuilding. Old friends and neighbors started moving away, bringing further layers of loss, Taylor said.\n\n“It hurts,” said Taylor, a Paradise native whose own home was destroyed in the fire. “Your community just starts spiraling.”\n\n![A reader board for Paradise Cinemas that reads \"Paradise Strong\" and \"Paradise will rise again\"](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_51.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\nA hopeful sign at the Paradise Cinemas in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\n\nEnrollment in Paradise Unified has been increasing, but is still less than half what it was before the fire — 1,657 last year, compared with 3,441 in 2017. And the student body is a bit different from before the fire: lower-income, more diverse, more students with disabilities. At least a quarter of the students are new to Paradise entirely and didn’t experience the fire.\n\nIn retrospect, it’s clear teachers — and not just kids — needed more support to deal with these changes. Taylor and other Paradise school officials now advise other districts that have experienced a natural disaster, and their top suggestion is to make sure the adults are cared for, too.\n\n“We found that initially, the adults needed attention the most. You think it’s going to be the kids, but they’re so much more resilient in the moment,” said Michelle Zevely, Butte County Office of Education’s deputy superintendent of student programs and education support.\n\nIn Paradise, the community relied on teachers to serve as a backbone amid the chaos. But many teachers also lost their homes, which meant they were haggling with insurance companies while finding new places to live and commuting long distances — in some cases, more than 100 miles — to be with their students every day.\n\n“Teachers just needed to talk, or to cry, but they couldn’t because they’re in the classroom and the students were their top priority,” said Tamara Conry, a former math teacher at Paradise Intermediate School who now works for the state teachers union.\n\n## When academics fall by the wayside\nAnother lesson from Paradise is the importance of prioritizing academics even when the impulse is to drop everything in favor of mental health. The first few years after the fire, school days were dedicated almost entirely to social-emotional activities as therapists and counselors were dispatched to campuses.\n\n“In the beginning, we did a lot of art and singing. Taking daily walks. We had baby goats and therapy dogs,” said Taylor. “We spent a lot of time talking about emotions, because that’s what we needed.”\n\nThe mental-health focus was indeed necessary. Aryah Berkowitz, who was in sixth grade at Achieve charter school when the fire took her home, two of her dogs and her family’s business, said the therapy and teachers’ social-emotional offerings were instrumental in helping her through those difficult years after the fire.\n\nBut those activities shouldn’t come at the expense of algebra and reading, Taylor said.\n\nOnce an ambitious student, Berkowitz was suspended twice for acting out after the 2018 disaster. It took her four years, she said, to focus on academics again. But she credits her teachers and counselors in Paradise for helping her through that difficult time, and getting her back on track: She graduated from high school in June and plans to join the Army, pursuing her goal of becoming a K-9 handler.\n\nStriking a balance between mental health and academics is essential for recovery efforts to be sustainable, Paradise educators and students say, given how long those efforts take, “People see disasters on the news and they think, ‘Oh, that happened, it’ll be over after a year,” said Myah Poe, a recent graduate of HomeTech charter school in Paradise. She lost her home in the fire and bounced around motels and rentals with her family before they were finally able to rebuild and return to Paradise two years ago. “It’s not. It stays with you for a long, long time.”\n\nPoe is now planning to enroll in community college and transfer to a four-year university. Her intended major: engineering, inspired in part by the builders resurrecting her hometown.\n\n![A wide-view of a classroom as students sit in round tables and raise their hands in the air.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_17.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\n![A high school student — with long black hair and wearing a black t-shirt and jean shorts — leans against a wall with flyers posted on it, as they pose for a photo.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_57.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\n**First:** Students in a classroom at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. **Last:** Myah Poe, a senior at HomeTech Charter in Paradise, at the Boys & Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\n\nTaylor remembers the first signs of renewal in Paradise, when the town became something more than an ashy moonscape. First a gas station opened, then a grocery was rebuilt, and eventually the Gold Nugget celebration returned. Even Joy Lyn’s candy shop reopened.\n\nFor Taylor, the pivotal moment came when her school was able to move back to its original campus after operating out of a church in Chico for three years. Families sobbed when they saw the new playground and the freshly painted school buildings.\n\nThe next milestone, she and others said, must be academic. Teachers need to set higher expectations, and schools need to provide tutoring and other support to help students catch up. Emotional wellness and academic rigor should not be mutually exclusive, Taylor said.\n\nIt’s a lesson recovering schools are applying in other disaster-torn parts of the country.\n\nJust two years after Maui’s devastating fires, for example, Lahainaluna High has doubled down on college preparation for students, introducing an Advanced Placement seminar class last fall that challenged students with intense research projects and writing assignments. The school has also increased enforcement of students’ attendance, contacting parents when their kids don’t show up to class.\n\nWhile the rigor and heightened accountability have been daunting for some students, many rose to the challenge and are proud of what they’ve achieved in school, according to Chapin, the local high school teacher. “I think our successes this year have crowded out a lot of stuff that could have paralyzed us,” he said.\n\nParadise Unified broke ground in June on rebuilding its main elementary school. The 46,000-square-foot campus will include a STEM lab, soccer field and outdoor stage.\n\n“It took almost five years before we could see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Taylor said. “But now the light is shining very bright.”\n\n*Statistical journalist Natasha* *Uzcátegui-Liggett of CalMatters contributed to this story.*\n\n## READ NEXT\n[![California’s wildfire smoke and climate change: 4 things to know](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/AP22251803352628.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/environment\/2023\/09\/california-wildfire-smoke-climate-change\/)\n\n### [California’s wildfire smoke and climate change: 4 things to know](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/environment\/2023\/09\/california-wildfire-smoke-climate-change\/)\nSeptember 5, 2023\n\n[![Drones, satellites and AI: How California fights its unpredictable wildfires with analytics](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/062923-Jon-Heggie-CalFire-KC-CM-006.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/environment\/wildfires\/2023\/07\/california-wildfires-analytics-technology\/)\n\n### [Drones, satellites and AI: How California fights its unpredictable wildfires with analytics](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/environment\/wildfires\/2023\/07\/california-wildfires-analytics-technology\/)\nJuly 12, 2023\n\nJuly 12, 2023\n\nRead more from CalMatters\n\n[![](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/engage_text_icon.png) Text Get breaking news on your phone.](https:\/\/joinsubtext.com\/calmatters)\n\n[![](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/engage_download_icon.png) Download Keep up with the latest via our app.](https:\/\/urlgeni.us\/calmatters-app)\n\n[![](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/engage_subscribe_icon.png) Sign up Receive free updates in your inbox.](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/subscribe-to-calmatters\/)\n\n## Nonpartisan, independent California news for all\nWe’re CalMatters, your nonprofit and nonpartisan news guide.\n\nOur journalists are here to empower you and our mission continues to be essential.\n\n- **We are independent and nonpartisan.** Our trustworthy journalism is free from partisan politics, free from corporate influence and actually free for all Californians.\n- **We are focused on California issues.** From the environment to homelessness, economy and more, we publish the unfettered truth to keep you informed.\n- **We hold people in power accountable.** We probe and reveal the actions and inactions of powerful people and institutions, and the consequences that follow.\n\nBut we can’t keep doing this without support from readers like you.\n\n![](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Asset-2ii-2.png)\n\n**********Please give what you can today. Every gift helps.**********\n\n[GIVE NOW](https:\/\/give.calmatters.org\/campaign\/564470\/donate?c_src=website&c_src2=homepage)\n\nTagged: [education](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/tag\/education\/), [environment](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/tag\/environment\/), [K-12 education](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/tag\/k-12-education\/), [Mental Health](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/tag\/mental-health\/), [wildfires](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/tag\/wildfires\/)\n\n[![Avatar photo](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/cropped-Carolyn-Jones-120x120.jpg)](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/author\/carolyn-jones\/)\n\n## [Carolyn JonesK-12 Education Reporter](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/author\/carolyn-jones\/)\n[carolyn@calmatters.org](mailto:carolyn@calmatters.org)\n\nCarolyn Jones covers K-12 education at CalMatters. A longtime news reporter, she’s covered education for nearly a decade, focusing on everything from special education to state funding policies to inequities...  [More by Carolyn Jones](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/author\/carolyn-jones\/)\n\n[![](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Megan-Headshot-200x200.jpg?crop=1)](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/author\/megan-tagami\/)\n\n## [Megan Tagami](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/author\/megan-tagami\/)\n[mtagami@civilbeat.org](mailto:mtagami@civilbeat.org)\n\nMegan Tagami is a reporter covering education for Honolulu Civil Beat. She is a former fellow with the CalMatters College Journalism Network.  [More by Megan Tagami](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/author\/megan-tagami\/)\n\n[![](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Sharon-Lurye-200x200.jpeg?crop=1)](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/author\/sharon-lurye\/)\n\n## [Sharon Lurye](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/author\/sharon-lurye\/)\n[slurye@ap.org](mailto:slurye@ap.org)\n\nSharon Lurye is the data reporter for The Associated Press’ Education Reporting Network.  [More by Sharon Lurye](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/author\/sharon-lurye\/)\n\n###### Republish\n### Seven years after California’s deadliest fire, schools — and kids — are still recovering\n\nWe love that you want to share our stories with your readers. Hundreds of publications republish our work on a regular basis.\n\nAll of the articles at CalMatters are available to republish for free, under the following conditions:\n\n- - **Give prominent credit to our journalists:** Credit our authors at the top of the article and any other byline areas of your publication. In the byline, we prefer “By Author Name, CalMatters.” If you’re republishing guest commentary ([example](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/commentary\/2024\/11\/reform-california-proportional-representative-democracy\/)) from CalMatters, in the byline, use “By Author Name, Special for CalMatters.”\n\n- - **Credit CalMatters at the top of the story:** At the top of the story’s text, include this copy: “This story was originally published by [CalMatters](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/). [Sign up](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/subscribe-to-calmatters\/) for their newsletters.” If you are republishing [commentary](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/commentary\/), include this copy instead: “This commentary was originally published by [CalMatters](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/). 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Contact us at [republish@calmatters.org](mailto:republish@calmatters.org).\n\n\\<!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/ --\\> \\<h1\\>Seven years after California\\&\\#8217;s deadliest fire, schools — and kids — are still recovering\\<\/h1\\> \\<p\\>By \\<a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/author\/carolyn-jones\/\" title=\"Posts by Carolyn Jones\" class=\"author url fn\" rel=\"author\"\\>Carolyn Jones\\<\/a\\>, \\<a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/author\/megan-tagami\/\" title=\"Posts by Megan Tagami\" class=\"author url fn\" rel=\"author\"\\>Megan Tagami\\<\/a\\> and \\<a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/author\/sharon-lurye\/\" title=\"Posts by Sharon Lurye\" class=\"author url fn\" rel=\"author\"\\>Sharon Lurye\\<\/a\\>, CalMatters\\<\/p\\> \\<figure\\> \\<img width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_19.jpg?fit=1200%2C800\\&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Students, some sitting and some standing, write on individual pieces of paper while they work on an assignment inside a classroom. The room is decorates with hand-drawn paper butterflies and multi-colored round laterns.\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_19.jpg?w=2000\\&amp;ssl=1 2000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_19.jpg?resize=300%2C200\\&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_19.jpg?resize=1024%2C682\\&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_19.jpg?resize=768%2C512\\&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_19.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024\\&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_19.jpg?resize=18%2C12\\&amp;ssl=1 18w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_19.jpg?resize=1200%2C800\\&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_19.jpg?resize=780%2C520\\&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_19.jpg?resize=400%2C267\\&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_19.jpg?fit=1200%2C800\\&amp;ssl=1\\&amp;w=370 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/\\> \\<figcaption\\>Students work on activities in a classroom at Achieve Charter School of Paradise in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\\<\/figcaption\\> \\<\/figure\\> \\<p\\>This story was originally published by \\<a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/\"\\>CalMatters\\<\/a\\>. \\<a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/subscribe-to-calmatters\/\"\\>Sign up\\<\/a\\> for their newsletters.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>\\<em\\>CalMatters is collaborating with The Associated Press, Honolulu Civil Beat, Blue Ridge Public Radio, and Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico to examine how school communities are recovering from the disruption of natural disasters.\\<\/em\\>\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Nearly seven years after \\<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/paradise-wildfire-california-anniversary-five-years-b4434481c38e6a02e9f2d376ac172b04\"\\>Paradise was ravaged by wildfire\\<\/a\\>, the foothill town smells like pine trees again. New homes are sprouting up on once-scorched lots. Construction trucks rumble through neighborhoods. An ice cream shop recently opened around the corner from the newly rebuilt high school.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>But in the town’s classrooms, recovery has been more complicated — and much slower. Even as Paradise gradually rebuilds schools lost to California’s 2018 Camp Fire, officials have found getting kids on track academically — and recreating a tight-knit, thriving school community — is a lot tougher than just flipping on the lights at a new campus.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>“We’ll get there, but we have not yet recovered,” said Superintendent Tom Taylor before he retired in May. “We’re not yet where we want to be.”\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>One of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade. Damaged schools, lost homes and layers of trauma have left a mark on thousands of children — a scenario sure to continue as climate change makes these events more frequent and more intense.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>The challenges that persist in Paradise are a reminder of how long learning recovery can take — and a lesson on how schools can give traumatized kids a better chance of thriving long term.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>It’s also a lesson on how to balance mental health and academics in the years following a disaster — and a glimpse into the challenges facing schools in Los Angeles after last year’s fires. For most students, the Camp Fire and its aftermath made it almost impossible to focus on schoolwork. Schools pushed academics aside in favor of mental health, a move that most agreed was necessary but set students back months if not years academically. \\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>“People think, natural disaster — mental health. They don't think about the academic component to it,” said Carrie Dawes, health and wellness coordinator for Paradise Unified. “You put that aside when you have a little kiddo crying because they don't have a house to live in. You're not going to say, ‘OK, snap out of it. We’ve got math to do.’”\\<\/p\\> \\<h2\\>Camp Fire left students in a lingering academic malaise\\<\/h2\\> \\<p\\>In the Paradise disaster's wake, students found themselves moving frequently. Schools were temporarily housed in unusual places — hardware stores, warehouses, churches. Nearly everyone was consumed by anxiety and grief. Learning fell to the wayside.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Kenny Michael, a high school senior, was in fifth grade when the fire erupted. Although her immediate family was safe, some beloved neighbors died. Michael spent months grappling with family strife, loss and stress, including over her grandmother's missing cats.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>“It wasn’t just a matter of the fire hitting,” Michael said. “It was all this other stuff, too.”\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Once an enthusiastic learner, Michael failed fifth grade and lost interest in school, saying she was too distracted and exhausted to concentrate on classroom lessons. She’s now living with her grandmother in Magalia, a small community adjacent to Paradise, and attends an online school. She takes solace in talking to friends and writing horror and fantasy stories — about fire.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>But she has no immediate plans to attend college after she graduates this year.\\<\/p\\> \\<figure\\>\\<img src=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_53-819x1024.jpg\" alt=\"A person, with short ginger hair and with gray headphones resting around their neck, stands in between bushes of lavender and red flower while posing for a photo.\"\/\\>\\<figcaption\\>Kenny Michael outside of the Boys \\&amp; Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\\<\/figcaption\\>\\<\/figure\\> \\<p\\>This is typical for Paradise teens. Last year, only \\<a href=\"https:\/\/www.caschooldashboard.org\/reports\/04615310000000\/2024\"\\>13% of graduating seniors\\<\/a\\> in Paradise Unified met the entrance requirements for California’s public universities or completed a career training program, compared with 45% statewide. Last year, not one student from Paradise Unified enrolled as a freshman at the University of California.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Test scores reflect the academic malaise, prolonged by the pandemic. Among eighth graders, only 11% met the state’s standard for math. Just 18% of sixth graders were reading at grade level. The numbers were even worse for low-income students.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>The statistics show that, even once the immediate effects of the fire subsided, academics continued their downward spiral.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<h2\\>Disaster-related absences take a steep toll on learning\\<\/h2\\> \\<p\\>Before the Camp Fire roared through Butte County in November 2018, Paradise was a quiet, woodsy town filled with families and retirees. There was a movie theater, a bowling alley, a pet store and a Foster’s Freeze. Everyone loved the \\<a href=\"https:\/\/www.joylynscandies.com\"\\>beer brittle at Joy Lyn’s candy shop\\<\/a\\>. In April, residents celebrated Gold Nugget Days with a parade, chili cook-off and a Miss Gold Nugget contest.\\&nbsp;\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Within a few hours, all of that was gone. The Gold Rush-era town was almost entirely wiped out in the fire. Eighty-five people died, including some in their cars as they tried to escape. More than 18,000 buildings burned, including most of the town’s dozen schools. At least 26,000 people were displaced.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Schools began the long process of recovery as the chaos began to settle: locating students, finding new facilities, assessing the damage and getting academics back on track after nearly a month of canceled classes.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>It’s been a protracted process.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<figure\\>\\<img src=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_21-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"A close-up view of an illustrative map that shows notable places in Paradise, California.\"\/\\>\\<figcaption\\>An illustrated map of Paradise at Achieve Charter School of Paradise in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\\<\/figcaption\\>\\<\/figure\\> \\<figure\\> \\<figure\\>\\<img src=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_16-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"A wide view of students playing on an asphalt playground on a clear day. Trees, dirt and some growing vegetation can be seen nearby. The top of a wired fence can be seen in the foreground.\"\/\\>\\<\/figure\\> \\<figure\\>\\<img src=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_44-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"An empty lot with dirt and gravel on it. A small for sale sign can be seen in the foreground.\"\/\\>\\<\/figure\\> \\<figcaption\\>\\<strong\\>First:\\<\/strong\\> Students play on the playground at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. \\<strong\\>Last:\\<\/strong\\> An empty lot in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\\<\/figcaption\\>\\<\/figure\\> \\<p\\>During the 2018-19 school year, the Paradise Unified School District reported 154 closure days across its dozen schools as a result of the Camp Fire, impacting about 4,200 students, according to \\<a href=\"https:\/\/disasterdays.calmatters.org\/california-school-closures\/school-district\/paradise-unified\/\"\\>data analysis\\<\/a\\> by CalMatters. But the impacts of the Camp Fire were far reaching, impacting nearly 1 million students across the state — 15% of all students that year — as drifting smoke prompted more than 1,600 schools to close.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>In the following five years, Paradise schools reported up to 10 closure days a year, mostly from winter storms and shutting off the power to lower fire risks on dry and windy days.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Since 2022-23, kids in California have lost more than 3.5 million days of learning because of disasters, according to UndauntedK12, a policy and research group. And that learning loss is magnified because of the stress associated with such catastrophes.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>It’s not uncommon for students to miss school after a natural disaster, either because they’ve suddenly become homeless or due to mental health struggles, or both. But disaster-related absenteeism can take an especially steep toll on students’ learning, according to\\<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/2024\/how-to-meet-student-needs-following-inclement-weather-related-school-closures\/\"\\> research from the NWEA\\<\/a\\>, a not-for-profit education research firm. Middle schoolers who lose a week of school due to extreme weather actually miss three weeks of progress in reading and almost four weeks in math, researchers found, most likely due to trouble concentrating.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>It’s a concern facing a growing number of schools nationwide.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>In North Carolina, some students lost two months’ worth of class this past academic year because of both Hurricane Helene last September and other extreme weather events. The historic Category 4 storm damaged tens of thousands of homes and numerous school buildings, causing mass displacement and academic setbacks.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>In Hawaii, the deadly August 2023 Lahaina wildfires resulted in students at four schools losing at least five weeks of learning days. At King Kamehameha III Elementary, a historic elementary school that burned down in the fires, kids lost more than 50 days of instruction.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>The compound effects of missed class time are evident in Lahaina. Students’ test scores took a sharp dip in the school year after the disaster as kids transitioned between online classes, learning hubs and schools outside of West Maui. Only 29% of King Kamehameha III’s students tested proficient in math in spring 2024, for example, compared with 46% the year before.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Even at the three Lahaina public schools that remained standing after the fires, students weren’t able to return to the campuses until mid-October because of debris cleanup and environmental testing.\\&nbsp;\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Students struggled to find motivation in school or attended class sporadically before the fires, according to Lahainaluna High School teacher Jarrett Chapin, and the disaster made matters worse. In the 2023-24 school year, 28% of Lahainaluna students were proficient in English, compared with nearly 50% the year before the fire. Only 5% of kids tested proficient in math.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<h2\\>Finding normalcy can be a struggle after a disaster\\<\/h2\\> \\<p\\>In Paradise, even as the town’s schools set about rebuilding damaged campuses and tending to students and families, the community faced another reality: It would never be the same.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Casey Taylor, Achieve Charter School superintendent, described the first few months after the fire as the “hero phase,” where the community pulled together and vowed to resurrect their town. “Paradise Strong” and “We Will Rebuild” signs proliferated.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>But then a more difficult period ensued, rife with disillusionment. Fire survivors got tired of living out of suitcases, and many were daunted by the hassle and expense of rebuilding. Old friends and neighbors started moving away, bringing further layers of loss, Taylor said.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>“It hurts,” said Taylor, a Paradise native whose own home was destroyed in the fire. “Your community just starts spiraling.”\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<figure\\>\\<img src=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_51-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"A reader board for Paradise Cinemas that reads \\&quot;Paradise Strong\\&quot; and \\&quot;Paradise will rise again\\&quot;\"\/\\>\\<figcaption\\>A hopeful sign at the Paradise Cinemas in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\\<\/figcaption\\>\\<\/figure\\> \\<p\\>Enrollment in Paradise Unified has been increasing, but is still less than half what it was before the fire — 1,657 last year, compared with 3,441 in 2017. And the student body is a bit different from before the fire: lower-income, more diverse, more students with disabilities. At least a quarter of the students are new to Paradise entirely and didn’t experience the fire.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>In retrospect, it’s clear teachers — and not just kids — needed more support to deal with these changes. Taylor and other Paradise school officials now advise other districts that have experienced a natural disaster, and their top suggestion is to make sure the adults are cared for, too.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>“We found that initially, the adults needed attention the most. You think it’s going to be the kids, but they’re so much more resilient in the moment,” said Michelle Zevely, Butte County Office of Education’s deputy superintendent of student programs and education support.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>In Paradise, the community relied on teachers to serve as a backbone amid the chaos. But many teachers also lost their homes, which meant they were haggling with insurance companies while finding new places to live and commuting long distances — in some cases, more than 100 miles — to be with their students every day.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>“Teachers just needed to talk, or to cry, but they couldn’t because they’re in the classroom and the students were their top priority,” said Tamara Conry, a former math teacher at Paradise Intermediate School who now works for the state teachers union.\\<\/p\\> \\<h2\\>When academics fall by the wayside\\<\/h2\\> \\<p\\>Another lesson from Paradise is the importance of prioritizing academics even when the impulse is to drop everything in favor of mental health. The first few years after the fire, school days were dedicated almost entirely to social-emotional activities as therapists and counselors were dispatched to campuses.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>“In the beginning, we did a lot of art and singing. Taking daily walks. We had baby goats and therapy dogs,” said Taylor. “We spent a lot of time talking about emotions, because that’s what we needed.”\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>The mental-health focus was indeed necessary. Aryah Berkowitz, who was in sixth grade at Achieve charter school when the fire took her home, two of her dogs and her family’s business, said the therapy and teachers’ social-emotional offerings were instrumental in helping her through those difficult years after the fire.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>But those activities shouldn’t come at the expense of algebra and reading, Taylor said.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Once an ambitious student, Berkowitz was suspended twice for acting out after the 2018 disaster. It took her four years, she said, to focus on academics again. But she credits her teachers and counselors in Paradise for helping her through that difficult time, and getting her back on track: She graduated from high school in June and plans to join the Army, pursuing her goal of becoming a K-9 handler.\\&nbsp;\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Striking a balance between mental health and academics is essential for recovery efforts to be sustainable, Paradise educators and students say, given how long those efforts take, “People see disasters on the news and they think, ‘Oh, that happened, it’ll be over after a year,” said Myah Poe, a recent graduate of HomeTech charter school in Paradise. She lost her home in the fire and bounced around motels and rentals with her family before they were finally able to rebuild and return to Paradise two years ago. “It’s not. It stays with you for a long, long time.”\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Poe is now planning to enroll in community college and transfer to a four-year university. Her intended major: engineering, inspired in part by the builders resurrecting her hometown.\\<\/p\\> \\<figure\\> \\<figure\\>\\<img src=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_17-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"A wide-view of a classroom as students sit in round tables and raise their hands in the air.\"\/\\>\\<\/figure\\> \\<figure\\>\\<img src=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125\\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\\_MG\\_CM\\_57-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"A high school student — with long black hair and wearing a black t-shirt and jean shorts — leans against a wall with flyers posted on it, as they pose for a photo.\"\/\\>\\<\/figure\\> \\<figcaption\\>\\<strong\\>First:\\<\/strong\\> Students in a classroom at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. \\<strong\\>Last:\\<\/strong\\> Myah Poe, a senior at HomeTech Charter in Paradise, at the Boys \\&amp; Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\\<br\\>\\<\/figcaption\\>\\<\/figure\\> \\<p\\>Taylor remembers the first signs of renewal in Paradise, when the town became something more than an ashy moonscape. First a gas station opened, then a grocery was rebuilt, and eventually the Gold Nugget celebration returned. Even Joy Lyn’s candy shop reopened.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>For Taylor, the pivotal moment came when her school was able to move back to its original campus after operating out of a church in Chico for three years. Families sobbed when they saw the new playground and the freshly painted school buildings.\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>The next milestone, she and others said, must be academic. Teachers need to set higher expectations, and schools need to provide tutoring and other support to help students catch up. Emotional wellness and academic rigor should not be mutually exclusive, Taylor said.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>It’s a lesson recovering schools are applying in other disaster-torn parts of the country.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Just two years after Maui’s devastating fires, for example, Lahainaluna High has doubled down on college preparation for students, introducing an Advanced Placement seminar class last fall that challenged students with intense research projects and writing assignments. The school has also increased enforcement of students’ attendance, contacting parents when their kids don’t show up to class.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>While the rigor and heightened accountability have been daunting for some students, many rose to the challenge and are proud of what they’ve achieved in school, according to Chapin, the local high school teacher. “I think our successes this year have crowded out a lot of stuff that could have paralyzed us,” he said.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>Paradise Unified broke ground in June on rebuilding its main elementary school. The 46,000-square-foot campus will include a STEM lab, soccer field and outdoor stage.\\&nbsp;\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>“It took almost five years before we could see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Taylor said. “But now the light is shining very bright.”\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>\\<em\\>Statistical journalist Natasha \\<\/em\\>\\<em\\>Uzcátegui-Liggett of CalMatters contributed to this story.\\<\/em\\>\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>\\<br\\>\\<\/p\\> \\<p\\>This article was \\<a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/education\/k-12-education\/2025\/09\/wildfire-california-schools\/\"\\>originally published on CalMatters\\<\/a\\> and was republished under the \\<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/\"\\>Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\\<\/a\\> license.\\<\/p\\>\n\nCopy HTML\n\n[![CalMatters logo](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/footer_logo_large.png?fit=400%2C80&ssl=1)](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/)\n\n- [Bluesky](https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/calmatters.org)\n- [Instagram](https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/calmatters\/)\n- [Facebook](https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/calmatters\/)\n- [X](https:\/\/x.com\/CalMatters)\n- [TikTok](https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@calmatters)\n- [LinkedIn](https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/calmatters\/)\n- [YouTube](https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/calmatters)\n\n## About\n- [Overview](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/)\n- [Impact](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/impact\/)\n- [Funding](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/funding\/)\n- [News and Awards](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/news-and-awards\/)\n- [Policies](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/policies-and-standards\/)\n- [Programs](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/programs\/)\n- [Sponsorships](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/advertise\/)\n- [Our Team](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/team\/)\n- [Jobs](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/jobs\/)\n- [Contact Us](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/contact-us\/)\n\n## Topics\n- [Politics](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/politics\/)\n- [Justice](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/justice\/)\n- [Economy](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/economy\/)\n- [Education](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/education\/)\n- [Environment](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/environment\/)\n- [Housing](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/housing\/)\n- [Health](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/health\/)\n- [Commentary](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/commentary\/)\n- [Inequality](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/california-divide\/)\n\n## More\n- [Donate](https:\/\/give.calmatters.org\/campaign\/564470\/donate?c_src=website&c_src2=footer)\n- [Manage donation](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/contact-us\/#manage-your-donation)\n- [Newsletters](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/subscribe-to-calmatters\/)\n- [CalMatters en Español](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/calmatters-en-espanol\/)\n- [Inside the Newsroom](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/category\/inside-the-newsroom\/)\n- [Digital Democracy](https:\/\/calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org\/)\n\n## General Inquiries\n[info@calmatters.org](mailto:info@calmatters.org)\n\n## Membership Inquiries\n[membership@calmatters.org](mailto:membership@calmatters.org)\n\n1. 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Become a CalMatters member with a tax-deductible donation today to stay informed, bolster our journalism and expand how many people we reach across California.\n\n[Donate](https:\/\/give.calmatters.org\/campaign\/564470\/donate?c_src=website&c_src2=footer)\n\n- [Terms & Conditions](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/policies-and-standards\/#j-terms-and-conditions)\n- [Privacy Policy](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/about\/policies-and-standards\/#j-privacy-policy)\n- [Sitemap](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/sitemap\/)\n\n© 2026 CalMatters  [Powered by Newspack](https:\/\/newspack.com\/)  [Privacy Policy](https:\/\/calmatters.org\/privacy-policy\/)\n\n## Gift this article\nClose\n\nLink  Copy link\n\nNotifications","attrs_readable_markdown":"**In summary**\n\nOne of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade.\n\n*CalMatters is collaborating with The Associated Press, Honolulu Civil Beat, Blue Ridge Public Radio, and Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico to examine how school communities are recovering from the disruption of natural disasters.*\n\nNearly seven years after [Paradise was ravaged by wildfire](https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/paradise-wildfire-california-anniversary-five-years-b4434481c38e6a02e9f2d376ac172b04), the foothill town smells like pine trees again. New homes are sprouting up on once-scorched lots. Construction trucks rumble through neighborhoods. An ice cream shop recently opened around the corner from the newly rebuilt high school.\n\nBut in the town’s classrooms, recovery has been more complicated — and much slower. Even as Paradise gradually rebuilds schools lost to California’s 2018 Camp Fire, officials have found getting kids on track academically — and recreating a tight-knit, thriving school community — is a lot tougher than just flipping on the lights at a new campus.\n\n“We’ll get there, but we have not yet recovered,” said Superintendent Tom Taylor before he retired in May. “We’re not yet where we want to be.”\n\nOne of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade. Damaged schools, lost homes and layers of trauma have left a mark on thousands of children — a scenario sure to continue as climate change makes these events more frequent and more intense.\n\nThe challenges that persist in Paradise are a reminder of how long learning recovery can take — and a lesson on how schools can give traumatized kids a better chance of thriving long term.\n\nIt’s also a lesson on how to balance mental health and academics in the years following a disaster — and a glimpse into the challenges facing schools in Los Angeles after last year’s fires. For most students, the Camp Fire and its aftermath made it almost impossible to focus on schoolwork. Schools pushed academics aside in favor of mental health, a move that most agreed was necessary but set students back months if not years academically.\n\n![A firefighter searches for human remains in a trailer park destroyed in the Camp Fire on Nov. 16, 2018, in Paradise. A lobbyist seeking a \\$1.5-billion state loan to help tens of thousands of victims of devastating California wildfires is leaving his job amid a sexual harassment scandal. The PG\\&E Fire Victim Trust reported Wednesday, April 20, 2022 that Patrick McCallum and the trust “have agreed to part ways.\" Photo by John Locher, AP Photo](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/042222-CAMP-FIRE-AP-JL-CM.jpg?resize=1024%2C668&ssl=1)\n\nA firefighter searches for human remains in a trailer park destroyed in the Camp Fire in Paradise on Nov. 16, 2018. Photo by John Locher, AP Photo\n\n“People think, natural disaster — mental health. They don’t think about the academic component to it,” said Carrie Dawes, health and wellness coordinator for Paradise Unified. “You put that aside when you have a little kiddo crying because they don’t have a house to live in. You’re not going to say, ‘OK, snap out of it. We’ve got math to do.’”\n\n## Camp Fire left students in a lingering academic malaise\nIn the Paradise disaster’s wake, students found themselves moving frequently. Schools were temporarily housed in unusual places — hardware stores, warehouses, churches. Nearly everyone was consumed by anxiety and grief. Learning fell to the wayside.\n\nKenny Michael, a high school senior, was in fifth grade when the fire erupted. Although her immediate family was safe, some beloved neighbors died. Michael spent months grappling with family strife, loss and stress, including over her grandmother’s missing cats.\n\n“It wasn’t just a matter of the fire hitting,” Michael said. “It was all this other stuff, too.”\n\nOnce an enthusiastic learner, Michael failed fifth grade and lost interest in school, saying she was too distracted and exhausted to concentrate on classroom lessons. She’s now living with her grandmother in Magalia, a small community adjacent to Paradise, and attends an online school. She takes solace in talking to friends and writing horror and fantasy stories — about fire.\n\nBut she has no immediate plans to attend college after she graduates this year.\n\n![A person, with short ginger hair and with gray headphones resting around their neck, stands in between bushes of lavender and red flower while posing for a photo.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_53.jpg?resize=819%2C1024&ssl=1)\n\nKenny Michael outside of the Boys & Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\n\nThis is typical for Paradise teens. Last year, only [13% of graduating seniors](https:\/\/www.caschooldashboard.org\/reports\/04615310000000\/2024) in Paradise Unified met the entrance requirements for California’s public universities or completed a career training program, compared with 45% statewide. Last year, not one student from Paradise Unified enrolled as a freshman at the University of California.\n\nTest scores reflect the academic malaise, prolonged by the pandemic. Among eighth graders, only 11% met the state’s standard for math. Just 18% of sixth graders were reading at grade level. The numbers were even worse for low-income students.\n\n## READ NEXT\nThe statistics show that, even once the immediate effects of the fire subsided, academics continued their downward spiral.\n\nBefore the Camp Fire roared through Butte County in November 2018, Paradise was a quiet, woodsy town filled with families and retirees. There was a movie theater, a bowling alley, a pet store and a Foster’s Freeze. Everyone loved the [beer brittle at Joy Lyn’s candy shop](https:\/\/www.joylynscandies.com\/). In April, residents celebrated Gold Nugget Days with a parade, chili cook-off and a Miss Gold Nugget contest.\n\nWithin a few hours, all of that was gone. The Gold Rush-era town was almost entirely wiped out in the fire. Eighty-five people died, including some in their cars as they tried to escape. More than 18,000 buildings burned, including most of the town’s dozen schools. At least 26,000 people were displaced.\n\nSchools began the long process of recovery as the chaos began to settle: locating students, finding new facilities, assessing the damage and getting academics back on track after nearly a month of canceled classes.\n\nIt’s been a protracted process.\n\n![A close-up view of an illustrative map that shows notable places in Paradise, California.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_21.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\nAn illustrated map of Paradise at Achieve Charter School of Paradise in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\n\n![A wide view of students playing on an asphalt playground on a clear day. Trees, dirt and some growing vegetation can be seen nearby. The top of a wired fence can be seen in the foreground.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_16.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\n![An empty lot with dirt and gravel on it. A small for sale sign can be seen in the foreground.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_44.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\n**First:** Students play on the playground at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. **Last:** An empty lot in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\n\nDuring the 2018-19 school year, the Paradise Unified School District reported 154 closure days across its dozen schools as a result of the Camp Fire, impacting about 4,200 students, according to [data analysis](https:\/\/disasterdays.calmatters.org\/california-school-closures\/school-district\/paradise-unified\/) by CalMatters. But the impacts of the Camp Fire were far reaching, impacting nearly 1 million students across the state — 15% of all students that year — as drifting smoke prompted more than 1,600 schools to close.\n\nIn the following five years, Paradise schools reported up to 10 closure days a year, mostly from winter storms and shutting off the power to lower fire risks on dry and windy days.\n\nSince 2022-23, kids in California have lost more than 3.5 million days of learning because of disasters, according to UndauntedK12, a policy and research group. And that learning loss is magnified because of the stress associated with such catastrophes.\n\nIt’s not uncommon for students to miss school after a natural disaster, either because they’ve suddenly become homeless or due to mental health struggles, or both. But disaster-related absenteeism can take an especially steep toll on students’ learning, according to [research from the NWEA](https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/2024\/how-to-meet-student-needs-following-inclement-weather-related-school-closures\/), a not-for-profit education research firm. Middle schoolers who lose a week of school due to extreme weather actually miss three weeks of progress in reading and almost four weeks in math, researchers found, most likely due to trouble concentrating.\n\nIt’s a concern facing a growing number of schools nationwide.\n\n![A pocket of sunlight illuminates a elementary-age student sitting on a table as they read a book while surrounded by other students. The tables are place within an outdoor pavilion.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/100323_Lahaina-Fire-School_AP_CM_01.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\nSacred Hearts School third-grade students read a book during an English language arts class at their temporary school site at Sacred Hearts Mission Church in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Oct. 3, 2023. Photo by Mengshin Lin, AP Photo\n\nIn North Carolina, some students lost two months’ worth of class this past academic year because of both Hurricane Helene last September and other extreme weather events. The historic Category 4 storm damaged tens of thousands of homes and numerous school buildings, causing mass displacement and academic setbacks.\n\nIn Hawaii, the deadly August 2023 Lahaina wildfires resulted in students at four schools losing at least five weeks of learning days. At King Kamehameha III Elementary, a historic elementary school that burned down in the fires, kids lost more than 50 days of instruction.\n\nThe compound effects of missed class time are evident in Lahaina. Students’ test scores took a sharp dip in the school year after the disaster as kids transitioned between online classes, learning hubs and schools outside of West Maui. Only 29% of King Kamehameha III’s students tested proficient in math in spring 2024, for example, compared with 46% the year before.\n\nEven at the three Lahaina public schools that remained standing after the fires, students weren’t able to return to the campuses until mid-October because of debris cleanup and environmental testing.\n\nStudents struggled to find motivation in school or attended class sporadically before the fires, according to Lahainaluna High School teacher Jarrett Chapin, and the disaster made matters worse. In the 2023-24 school year, 28% of Lahainaluna students were proficient in English, compared with nearly 50% the year before the fire. Only 5% of kids tested proficient in math.\n\n## Finding normalcy can be a struggle after a disaster\nIn Paradise, even as the town’s schools set about rebuilding damaged campuses and tending to students and families, the community faced another reality: It would never be the same.\n\nCasey Taylor, Achieve Charter School superintendent, described the first few months after the fire as the “hero phase,” where the community pulled together and vowed to resurrect their town. “Paradise Strong” and “We Will Rebuild” signs proliferated.\n\nBut then a more difficult period ensued, rife with disillusionment. Fire survivors got tired of living out of suitcases, and many were daunted by the hassle and expense of rebuilding. Old friends and neighbors started moving away, bringing further layers of loss, Taylor said.\n\n“It hurts,” said Taylor, a Paradise native whose own home was destroyed in the fire. “Your community just starts spiraling.”\n\n![A reader board for Paradise Cinemas that reads \"Paradise Strong\" and \"Paradise will rise again\"](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_51.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\nA hopeful sign at the Paradise Cinemas in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\n\nEnrollment in Paradise Unified has been increasing, but is still less than half what it was before the fire — 1,657 last year, compared with 3,441 in 2017. And the student body is a bit different from before the fire: lower-income, more diverse, more students with disabilities. At least a quarter of the students are new to Paradise entirely and didn’t experience the fire.\n\nIn retrospect, it’s clear teachers — and not just kids — needed more support to deal with these changes. Taylor and other Paradise school officials now advise other districts that have experienced a natural disaster, and their top suggestion is to make sure the adults are cared for, too.\n\n“We found that initially, the adults needed attention the most. You think it’s going to be the kids, but they’re so much more resilient in the moment,” said Michelle Zevely, Butte County Office of Education’s deputy superintendent of student programs and education support.\n\nIn Paradise, the community relied on teachers to serve as a backbone amid the chaos. But many teachers also lost their homes, which meant they were haggling with insurance companies while finding new places to live and commuting long distances — in some cases, more than 100 miles — to be with their students every day.\n\n“Teachers just needed to talk, or to cry, but they couldn’t because they’re in the classroom and the students were their top priority,” said Tamara Conry, a former math teacher at Paradise Intermediate School who now works for the state teachers union.\n\n## When academics fall by the wayside\nAnother lesson from Paradise is the importance of prioritizing academics even when the impulse is to drop everything in favor of mental health. The first few years after the fire, school days were dedicated almost entirely to social-emotional activities as therapists and counselors were dispatched to campuses.\n\n“In the beginning, we did a lot of art and singing. Taking daily walks. We had baby goats and therapy dogs,” said Taylor. “We spent a lot of time talking about emotions, because that’s what we needed.”\n\nThe mental-health focus was indeed necessary. Aryah Berkowitz, who was in sixth grade at Achieve charter school when the fire took her home, two of her dogs and her family’s business, said the therapy and teachers’ social-emotional offerings were instrumental in helping her through those difficult years after the fire.\n\nBut those activities shouldn’t come at the expense of algebra and reading, Taylor said.\n\nOnce an ambitious student, Berkowitz was suspended twice for acting out after the 2018 disaster. It took her four years, she said, to focus on academics again. But she credits her teachers and counselors in Paradise for helping her through that difficult time, and getting her back on track: She graduated from high school in June and plans to join the Army, pursuing her goal of becoming a K-9 handler.\n\nStriking a balance between mental health and academics is essential for recovery efforts to be sustainable, Paradise educators and students say, given how long those efforts take, “People see disasters on the news and they think, ‘Oh, that happened, it’ll be over after a year,” said Myah Poe, a recent graduate of HomeTech charter school in Paradise. She lost her home in the fire and bounced around motels and rentals with her family before they were finally able to rebuild and return to Paradise two years ago. “It’s not. It stays with you for a long, long time.”\n\nPoe is now planning to enroll in community college and transfer to a four-year university. Her intended major: engineering, inspired in part by the builders resurrecting her hometown.\n\n![A wide-view of a classroom as students sit in round tables and raise their hands in the air.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_17.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\n![A high school student — with long black hair and wearing a black t-shirt and jean shorts — leans against a wall with flyers posted on it, as they pose for a photo.](https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_57.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1)\n\n**First:** Students in a classroom at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. **Last:** Myah Poe, a senior at HomeTech Charter in Paradise, at the Boys & Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\n\nTaylor remembers the first signs of renewal in Paradise, when the town became something more than an ashy moonscape. First a gas station opened, then a grocery was rebuilt, and eventually the Gold Nugget celebration returned. Even Joy Lyn’s candy shop reopened.\n\nFor Taylor, the pivotal moment came when her school was able to move back to its original campus after operating out of a church in Chico for three years. Families sobbed when they saw the new playground and the freshly painted school buildings.\n\nThe next milestone, she and others said, must be academic. Teachers need to set higher expectations, and schools need to provide tutoring and other support to help students catch up. Emotional wellness and academic rigor should not be mutually exclusive, Taylor said.\n\nIt’s a lesson recovering schools are applying in other disaster-torn parts of the country.\n\nJust two years after Maui’s devastating fires, for example, Lahainaluna High has doubled down on college preparation for students, introducing an Advanced Placement seminar class last fall that challenged students with intense research projects and writing assignments. The school has also increased enforcement of students’ attendance, contacting parents when their kids don’t show up to class.\n\nWhile the rigor and heightened accountability have been daunting for some students, many rose to the challenge and are proud of what they’ve achieved in school, according to Chapin, the local high school teacher. “I think our successes this year have crowded out a lot of stuff that could have paralyzed us,” he said.\n\nParadise Unified broke ground in June on rebuilding its main elementary school. The 46,000-square-foot campus will include a STEM lab, soccer field and outdoor stage.\n\n“It took almost five years before we could see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Taylor said. “But now the light is shining very bright.”\n\n*Statistical journalist Natasha* *Uzcátegui-Liggett of CalMatters contributed to this story.*\n\n## READ NEXT","meta_canonical":null}

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Meta Title	Years after CA’s deadliest wildfire, these schools still recovering - CalMatters
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Boilerpipe Text	In summary One of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade. CalMatters is collaborating with The Associated Press, Honolulu Civil Beat, Blue Ridge Public Radio, and Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico to examine how school communities are recovering from the disruption of natural disasters. Nearly seven years after Paradise was ravaged by wildfire , the foothill town smells like pine trees again. New homes are sprouting up on once-scorched lots. Construction trucks rumble through neighborhoods. An ice cream shop recently opened around the corner from the newly rebuilt high school. But in the town’s classrooms, recovery has been more complicated — and much slower. Even as Paradise gradually rebuilds schools lost to California’s 2018 Camp Fire, officials have found getting kids on track academically — and recreating a tight-knit, thriving school community — is a lot tougher than just flipping on the lights at a new campus. “We’ll get there, but we have not yet recovered,” said Superintendent Tom Taylor before he retired in May. “We’re not yet where we want to be.” One of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade. Damaged schools, lost homes and layers of trauma have left a mark on thousands of children — a scenario sure to continue as climate change makes these events more frequent and more intense. The challenges that persist in Paradise are a reminder of how long learning recovery can take — and a lesson on how schools can give traumatized kids a better chance of thriving long term. It’s also a lesson on how to balance mental health and academics in the years following a disaster — and a glimpse into the challenges facing schools in Los Angeles after last year’s fires. For most students, the Camp Fire and its aftermath made it almost impossible to focus on schoolwork. Schools pushed academics aside in favor of mental health, a move that most agreed was necessary but set students back months if not years academically. A firefighter searches for human remains in a trailer park destroyed in the Camp Fire in Paradise on Nov. 16, 2018. Photo by John Locher, AP Photo “People think, natural disaster — mental health. They don’t think about the academic component to it,” said Carrie Dawes, health and wellness coordinator for Paradise Unified. “You put that aside when you have a little kiddo crying because they don’t have a house to live in. You’re not going to say, ‘OK, snap out of it. We’ve got math to do.’” Camp Fire left students in a lingering academic malaise In the Paradise disaster’s wake, students found themselves moving frequently. Schools were temporarily housed in unusual places — hardware stores, warehouses, churches. Nearly everyone was consumed by anxiety and grief. Learning fell to the wayside. Kenny Michael, a high school senior, was in fifth grade when the fire erupted. Although her immediate family was safe, some beloved neighbors died. Michael spent months grappling with family strife, loss and stress, including over her grandmother’s missing cats. “It wasn’t just a matter of the fire hitting,” Michael said. “It was all this other stuff, too.” Once an enthusiastic learner, Michael failed fifth grade and lost interest in school, saying she was too distracted and exhausted to concentrate on classroom lessons. She’s now living with her grandmother in Magalia, a small community adjacent to Paradise, and attends an online school. She takes solace in talking to friends and writing horror and fantasy stories — about fire. But she has no immediate plans to attend college after she graduates this year. Kenny Michael outside of the Boys & Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters This is typical for Paradise teens. Last year, only 13% of graduating seniors in Paradise Unified met the entrance requirements for California’s public universities or completed a career training program, compared with 45% statewide. Last year, not one student from Paradise Unified enrolled as a freshman at the University of California. Test scores reflect the academic malaise, prolonged by the pandemic. Among eighth graders, only 11% met the state’s standard for math. Just 18% of sixth graders were reading at grade level. The numbers were even worse for low-income students. READ NEXT The statistics show that, even once the immediate effects of the fire subsided, academics continued their downward spiral. Before the Camp Fire roared through Butte County in November 2018, Paradise was a quiet, woodsy town filled with families and retirees. There was a movie theater, a bowling alley, a pet store and a Foster’s Freeze. Everyone loved the beer brittle at Joy Lyn’s candy shop . In April, residents celebrated Gold Nugget Days with a parade, chili cook-off and a Miss Gold Nugget contest. Within a few hours, all of that was gone. The Gold Rush-era town was almost entirely wiped out in the fire. Eighty-five people died, including some in their cars as they tried to escape. More than 18,000 buildings burned, including most of the town’s dozen schools. At least 26,000 people were displaced. Schools began the long process of recovery as the chaos began to settle: locating students, finding new facilities, assessing the damage and getting academics back on track after nearly a month of canceled classes. It’s been a protracted process. An illustrated map of Paradise at Achieve Charter School of Paradise in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters First: Students play on the playground at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. Last: An empty lot in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters During the 2018-19 school year, the Paradise Unified School District reported 154 closure days across its dozen schools as a result of the Camp Fire, impacting about 4,200 students, according to data analysis by CalMatters. But the impacts of the Camp Fire were far reaching, impacting nearly 1 million students across the state — 15% of all students that year — as drifting smoke prompted more than 1,600 schools to close. In the following five years, Paradise schools reported up to 10 closure days a year, mostly from winter storms and shutting off the power to lower fire risks on dry and windy days. Since 2022-23, kids in California have lost more than 3.5 million days of learning because of disasters, according to UndauntedK12, a policy and research group. And that learning loss is magnified because of the stress associated with such catastrophes. It’s not uncommon for students to miss school after a natural disaster, either because they’ve suddenly become homeless or due to mental health struggles, or both. But disaster-related absenteeism can take an especially steep toll on students’ learning, according to research from the NWEA , a not-for-profit education research firm. Middle schoolers who lose a week of school due to extreme weather actually miss three weeks of progress in reading and almost four weeks in math, researchers found, most likely due to trouble concentrating. It’s a concern facing a growing number of schools nationwide. Sacred Hearts School third-grade students read a book during an English language arts class at their temporary school site at Sacred Hearts Mission Church in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Oct. 3, 2023. Photo by Mengshin Lin, AP Photo In North Carolina, some students lost two months’ worth of class this past academic year because of both Hurricane Helene last September and other extreme weather events. The historic Category 4 storm damaged tens of thousands of homes and numerous school buildings, causing mass displacement and academic setbacks. In Hawaii, the deadly August 2023 Lahaina wildfires resulted in students at four schools losing at least five weeks of learning days. At King Kamehameha III Elementary, a historic elementary school that burned down in the fires, kids lost more than 50 days of instruction. The compound effects of missed class time are evident in Lahaina. Students’ test scores took a sharp dip in the school year after the disaster as kids transitioned between online classes, learning hubs and schools outside of West Maui. Only 29% of King Kamehameha III’s students tested proficient in math in spring 2024, for example, compared with 46% the year before. Even at the three Lahaina public schools that remained standing after the fires, students weren’t able to return to the campuses until mid-October because of debris cleanup and environmental testing. Students struggled to find motivation in school or attended class sporadically before the fires, according to Lahainaluna High School teacher Jarrett Chapin, and the disaster made matters worse. In the 2023-24 school year, 28% of Lahainaluna students were proficient in English, compared with nearly 50% the year before the fire. Only 5% of kids tested proficient in math. Finding normalcy can be a struggle after a disaster In Paradise, even as the town’s schools set about rebuilding damaged campuses and tending to students and families, the community faced another reality: It would never be the same. Casey Taylor, Achieve Charter School superintendent, described the first few months after the fire as the “hero phase,” where the community pulled together and vowed to resurrect their town. “Paradise Strong” and “We Will Rebuild” signs proliferated. But then a more difficult period ensued, rife with disillusionment. Fire survivors got tired of living out of suitcases, and many were daunted by the hassle and expense of rebuilding. Old friends and neighbors started moving away, bringing further layers of loss, Taylor said. “It hurts,” said Taylor, a Paradise native whose own home was destroyed in the fire. “Your community just starts spiraling.” A hopeful sign at the Paradise Cinemas in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters Enrollment in Paradise Unified has been increasing, but is still less than half what it was before the fire — 1,657 last year, compared with 3,441 in 2017. And the student body is a bit different from before the fire: lower-income, more diverse, more students with disabilities. At least a quarter of the students are new to Paradise entirely and didn’t experience the fire. In retrospect, it’s clear teachers — and not just kids — needed more support to deal with these changes. Taylor and other Paradise school officials now advise other districts that have experienced a natural disaster, and their top suggestion is to make sure the adults are cared for, too. “We found that initially, the adults needed attention the most. You think it’s going to be the kids, but they’re so much more resilient in the moment,” said Michelle Zevely, Butte County Office of Education’s deputy superintendent of student programs and education support. In Paradise, the community relied on teachers to serve as a backbone amid the chaos. But many teachers also lost their homes, which meant they were haggling with insurance companies while finding new places to live and commuting long distances — in some cases, more than 100 miles — to be with their students every day. “Teachers just needed to talk, or to cry, but they couldn’t because they’re in the classroom and the students were their top priority,” said Tamara Conry, a former math teacher at Paradise Intermediate School who now works for the state teachers union. When academics fall by the wayside Another lesson from Paradise is the importance of prioritizing academics even when the impulse is to drop everything in favor of mental health. The first few years after the fire, school days were dedicated almost entirely to social-emotional activities as therapists and counselors were dispatched to campuses. “In the beginning, we did a lot of art and singing. Taking daily walks. We had baby goats and therapy dogs,” said Taylor. “We spent a lot of time talking about emotions, because that’s what we needed.” The mental-health focus was indeed necessary. Aryah Berkowitz, who was in sixth grade at Achieve charter school when the fire took her home, two of her dogs and her family’s business, said the therapy and teachers’ social-emotional offerings were instrumental in helping her through those difficult years after the fire. But those activities shouldn’t come at the expense of algebra and reading, Taylor said. Once an ambitious student, Berkowitz was suspended twice for acting out after the 2018 disaster. It took her four years, she said, to focus on academics again. But she credits her teachers and counselors in Paradise for helping her through that difficult time, and getting her back on track: She graduated from high school in June and plans to join the Army, pursuing her goal of becoming a K-9 handler. Striking a balance between mental health and academics is essential for recovery efforts to be sustainable, Paradise educators and students say, given how long those efforts take, “People see disasters on the news and they think, ‘Oh, that happened, it’ll be over after a year,” said Myah Poe, a recent graduate of HomeTech charter school in Paradise. She lost her home in the fire and bounced around motels and rentals with her family before they were finally able to rebuild and return to Paradise two years ago. “It’s not. It stays with you for a long, long time.” Poe is now planning to enroll in community college and transfer to a four-year university. Her intended major: engineering, inspired in part by the builders resurrecting her hometown. First: Students in a classroom at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. Last: Myah Poe, a senior at HomeTech Charter in Paradise, at the Boys & Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters Taylor remembers the first signs of renewal in Paradise, when the town became something more than an ashy moonscape. First a gas station opened, then a grocery was rebuilt, and eventually the Gold Nugget celebration returned. Even Joy Lyn’s candy shop reopened. For Taylor, the pivotal moment came when her school was able to move back to its original campus after operating out of a church in Chico for three years. Families sobbed when they saw the new playground and the freshly painted school buildings. The next milestone, she and others said, must be academic. Teachers need to set higher expectations, and schools need to provide tutoring and other support to help students catch up. Emotional wellness and academic rigor should not be mutually exclusive, Taylor said. It’s a lesson recovering schools are applying in other disaster-torn parts of the country. Just two years after Maui’s devastating fires, for example, Lahainaluna High has doubled down on college preparation for students, introducing an Advanced Placement seminar class last fall that challenged students with intense research projects and writing assignments. The school has also increased enforcement of students’ attendance, contacting parents when their kids don’t show up to class. While the rigor and heightened accountability have been daunting for some students, many rose to the challenge and are proud of what they’ve achieved in school, according to Chapin, the local high school teacher. “I think our successes this year have crowded out a lot of stuff that could have paralyzed us,” he said. Paradise Unified broke ground in June on rebuilding its main elementary school. The 46,000-square-foot campus will include a STEM lab, soccer field and outdoor stage. “It took almost five years before we could see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Taylor said. “But now the light is shining very bright.” Statistical journalist Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett of CalMatters contributed to this story. READ NEXT
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[Share on X (Opens in new window) X](https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/09/wildfire-california-schools/?share=x&nb=1) - [Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook](https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/09/wildfire-california-schools/?share=facebook&nb=1) - [Share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp](https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/09/wildfire-california-schools/?share=jetpack-whatsapp&nb=1) ![Students, some sitting and some standing, write on individual pieces of paper while they work on an assignment inside a classroom. The room is decorates with hand-drawn paper butterflies and multi-colored round laterns.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_19.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1) Students work on activities in a classroom at Achieve Charter School of Paradise in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters In summary One of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade. Welcome to CalMatters, the only nonprofit newsroom devoted solely to covering issues that affect all Californians. Sign up for [WhatMatters](https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/whatmatters) to receive the latest news and commentary on the most important issues in the Golden State. CalMatters is collaborating with The Associated Press, Honolulu Civil Beat, Blue Ridge Public Radio, and Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico to examine how school communities are recovering from the disruption of natural disasters. Nearly seven years after [Paradise was ravaged by wildfire](https://apnews.com/article/paradise-wildfire-california-anniversary-five-years-b4434481c38e6a02e9f2d376ac172b04), the foothill town smells like pine trees again. New homes are sprouting up on once-scorched lots. Construction trucks rumble through neighborhoods. An ice cream shop recently opened around the corner from the newly rebuilt high school. But in the town’s classrooms, recovery has been more complicated — and much slower. Even as Paradise gradually rebuilds schools lost to California’s 2018 Camp Fire, officials have found getting kids on track academically — and recreating a tight-knit, thriving school community — is a lot tougher than just flipping on the lights at a new campus. “We’ll get there, but we have not yet recovered,” said Superintendent Tom Taylor before he retired in May. “We’re not yet where we want to be.” One of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade. Damaged schools, lost homes and layers of trauma have left a mark on thousands of children — a scenario sure to continue as climate change makes these events more frequent and more intense. The challenges that persist in Paradise are a reminder of how long learning recovery can take — and a lesson on how schools can give traumatized kids a better chance of thriving long term. It’s also a lesson on how to balance mental health and academics in the years following a disaster — and a glimpse into the challenges facing schools in Los Angeles after last year’s fires. For most students, the Camp Fire and its aftermath made it almost impossible to focus on schoolwork. Schools pushed academics aside in favor of mental health, a move that most agreed was necessary but set students back months if not years academically. ![A firefighter searches for human remains in a trailer park destroyed in the Camp Fire on Nov. 16, 2018, in Paradise. A lobbyist seeking a \$1.5-billion state loan to help tens of thousands of victims of devastating California wildfires is leaving his job amid a sexual harassment scandal. The PG\&E Fire Victim Trust reported Wednesday, April 20, 2022 that Patrick McCallum and the trust “have agreed to part ways." Photo by John Locher, AP Photo](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/042222-CAMP-FIRE-AP-JL-CM.jpg?resize=1024%2C668&ssl=1) A firefighter searches for human remains in a trailer park destroyed in the Camp Fire in Paradise on Nov. 16, 2018. Photo by John Locher, AP Photo 1. Just the right amount of news 2. Just the right amount of news 1. Get California’s most essential headlines without feeling overwhelmed. 2. Get California’s most essential headlines without feeling overwhelmed. ![](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Asset-4.png?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1) “People think, natural disaster — mental health. They don’t think about the academic component to it,” said Carrie Dawes, health and wellness coordinator for Paradise Unified. “You put that aside when you have a little kiddo crying because they don’t have a house to live in. You’re not going to say, ‘OK, snap out of it. We’ve got math to do.’” ## Camp Fire left students in a lingering academic malaise In the Paradise disaster’s wake, students found themselves moving frequently. Schools were temporarily housed in unusual places — hardware stores, warehouses, churches. Nearly everyone was consumed by anxiety and grief. Learning fell to the wayside. Kenny Michael, a high school senior, was in fifth grade when the fire erupted. Although her immediate family was safe, some beloved neighbors died. Michael spent months grappling with family strife, loss and stress, including over her grandmother’s missing cats. “It wasn’t just a matter of the fire hitting,” Michael said. “It was all this other stuff, too.” Once an enthusiastic learner, Michael failed fifth grade and lost interest in school, saying she was too distracted and exhausted to concentrate on classroom lessons. She’s now living with her grandmother in Magalia, a small community adjacent to Paradise, and attends an online school. She takes solace in talking to friends and writing horror and fantasy stories — about fire. But she has no immediate plans to attend college after she graduates this year. ![A person, with short ginger hair and with gray headphones resting around their neck, stands in between bushes of lavender and red flower while posing for a photo.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_53.jpg?resize=819%2C1024&ssl=1) Kenny Michael outside of the Boys & Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters This is typical for Paradise teens. Last year, only [13% of graduating seniors](https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/04615310000000/2024) in Paradise Unified met the entrance requirements for California’s public universities or completed a career training program, compared with 45% statewide. Last year, not one student from Paradise Unified enrolled as a freshman at the University of California. Test scores reflect the academic malaise, prolonged by the pandemic. Among eighth graders, only 11% met the state’s standard for math. Just 18% of sixth graders were reading at grade level. The numbers were even worse for low-income students. ## READ NEXT [![Why Newsom invited Trump to visit LA fire zones amid worries he’ll block disaster aid](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/010825_Newsom-Palisades-Fire_GETTY_CM_01.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)](https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/01/trump-los-angeles-fire-aid-newsom/) ### [Why Newsom invited Trump to visit LA fire zones amid worries he’ll block disaster aid](https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/01/trump-los-angeles-fire-aid-newsom/) January 10, 2025 January 13, 2025 The statistics show that, even once the immediate effects of the fire subsided, academics continued their downward spiral. ## Disaster-related absences take a steep toll on learning Before the Camp Fire roared through Butte County in November 2018, Paradise was a quiet, woodsy town filled with families and retirees. There was a movie theater, a bowling alley, a pet store and a Foster’s Freeze. Everyone loved the [beer brittle at Joy Lyn’s candy shop](https://www.joylynscandies.com/). In April, residents celebrated Gold Nugget Days with a parade, chili cook-off and a Miss Gold Nugget contest. Within a few hours, all of that was gone. The Gold Rush-era town was almost entirely wiped out in the fire. Eighty-five people died, including some in their cars as they tried to escape. More than 18,000 buildings burned, including most of the town’s dozen schools. At least 26,000 people were displaced. Schools began the long process of recovery as the chaos began to settle: locating students, finding new facilities, assessing the damage and getting academics back on track after nearly a month of canceled classes. It’s been a protracted process. ![A close-up view of an illustrative map that shows notable places in Paradise, California.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_21.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) An illustrated map of Paradise at Achieve Charter School of Paradise in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters ![A wide view of students playing on an asphalt playground on a clear day. Trees, dirt and some growing vegetation can be seen nearby. The top of a wired fence can be seen in the foreground.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_16.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) ![An empty lot with dirt and gravel on it. A small for sale sign can be seen in the foreground.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_44.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) First: Students play on the playground at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. Last: An empty lot in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters During the 2018-19 school year, the Paradise Unified School District reported 154 closure days across its dozen schools as a result of the Camp Fire, impacting about 4,200 students, according to [data analysis](https://disasterdays.calmatters.org/california-school-closures/school-district/paradise-unified/) by CalMatters. But the impacts of the Camp Fire were far reaching, impacting nearly 1 million students across the state — 15% of all students that year — as drifting smoke prompted more than 1,600 schools to close. In the following five years, Paradise schools reported up to 10 closure days a year, mostly from winter storms and shutting off the power to lower fire risks on dry and windy days. Since 2022-23, kids in California have lost more than 3.5 million days of learning because of disasters, according to UndauntedK12, a policy and research group. And that learning loss is magnified because of the stress associated with such catastrophes. It’s not uncommon for students to miss school after a natural disaster, either because they’ve suddenly become homeless or due to mental health struggles, or both. But disaster-related absenteeism can take an especially steep toll on students’ learning, according to [research from the NWEA](https://www.nwea.org/blog/2024/how-to-meet-student-needs-following-inclement-weather-related-school-closures/), a not-for-profit education research firm. Middle schoolers who lose a week of school due to extreme weather actually miss three weeks of progress in reading and almost four weeks in math, researchers found, most likely due to trouble concentrating. It’s a concern facing a growing number of schools nationwide. ![A pocket of sunlight illuminates a elementary-age student sitting on a table as they read a book while surrounded by other students. The tables are place within an outdoor pavilion.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/100323_Lahaina-Fire-School_AP_CM_01.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) Sacred Hearts School third-grade students read a book during an English language arts class at their temporary school site at Sacred Hearts Mission Church in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Oct. 3, 2023. Photo by Mengshin Lin, AP Photo In North Carolina, some students lost two months’ worth of class this past academic year because of both Hurricane Helene last September and other extreme weather events. The historic Category 4 storm damaged tens of thousands of homes and numerous school buildings, causing mass displacement and academic setbacks. In Hawaii, the deadly August 2023 Lahaina wildfires resulted in students at four schools losing at least five weeks of learning days. At King Kamehameha III Elementary, a historic elementary school that burned down in the fires, kids lost more than 50 days of instruction. The compound effects of missed class time are evident in Lahaina. Students’ test scores took a sharp dip in the school year after the disaster as kids transitioned between online classes, learning hubs and schools outside of West Maui. Only 29% of King Kamehameha III’s students tested proficient in math in spring 2024, for example, compared with 46% the year before. Even at the three Lahaina public schools that remained standing after the fires, students weren’t able to return to the campuses until mid-October because of debris cleanup and environmental testing. Students struggled to find motivation in school or attended class sporadically before the fires, according to Lahainaluna High School teacher Jarrett Chapin, and the disaster made matters worse. In the 2023-24 school year, 28% of Lahainaluna students were proficient in English, compared with nearly 50% the year before the fire. Only 5% of kids tested proficient in math. ## Finding normalcy can be a struggle after a disaster In Paradise, even as the town’s schools set about rebuilding damaged campuses and tending to students and families, the community faced another reality: It would never be the same. Casey Taylor, Achieve Charter School superintendent, described the first few months after the fire as the “hero phase,” where the community pulled together and vowed to resurrect their town. “Paradise Strong” and “We Will Rebuild” signs proliferated. But then a more difficult period ensued, rife with disillusionment. Fire survivors got tired of living out of suitcases, and many were daunted by the hassle and expense of rebuilding. Old friends and neighbors started moving away, bringing further layers of loss, Taylor said. “It hurts,” said Taylor, a Paradise native whose own home was destroyed in the fire. “Your community just starts spiraling.” ![A reader board for Paradise Cinemas that reads "Paradise Strong" and "Paradise will rise again"](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_51.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) A hopeful sign at the Paradise Cinemas in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters Enrollment in Paradise Unified has been increasing, but is still less than half what it was before the fire — 1,657 last year, compared with 3,441 in 2017. And the student body is a bit different from before the fire: lower-income, more diverse, more students with disabilities. At least a quarter of the students are new to Paradise entirely and didn’t experience the fire. In retrospect, it’s clear teachers — and not just kids — needed more support to deal with these changes. Taylor and other Paradise school officials now advise other districts that have experienced a natural disaster, and their top suggestion is to make sure the adults are cared for, too. “We found that initially, the adults needed attention the most. You think it’s going to be the kids, but they’re so much more resilient in the moment,” said Michelle Zevely, Butte County Office of Education’s deputy superintendent of student programs and education support. In Paradise, the community relied on teachers to serve as a backbone amid the chaos. But many teachers also lost their homes, which meant they were haggling with insurance companies while finding new places to live and commuting long distances — in some cases, more than 100 miles — to be with their students every day. “Teachers just needed to talk, or to cry, but they couldn’t because they’re in the classroom and the students were their top priority,” said Tamara Conry, a former math teacher at Paradise Intermediate School who now works for the state teachers union. ## When academics fall by the wayside Another lesson from Paradise is the importance of prioritizing academics even when the impulse is to drop everything in favor of mental health. The first few years after the fire, school days were dedicated almost entirely to social-emotional activities as therapists and counselors were dispatched to campuses. “In the beginning, we did a lot of art and singing. Taking daily walks. We had baby goats and therapy dogs,” said Taylor. “We spent a lot of time talking about emotions, because that’s what we needed.” The mental-health focus was indeed necessary. Aryah Berkowitz, who was in sixth grade at Achieve charter school when the fire took her home, two of her dogs and her family’s business, said the therapy and teachers’ social-emotional offerings were instrumental in helping her through those difficult years after the fire. But those activities shouldn’t come at the expense of algebra and reading, Taylor said. Once an ambitious student, Berkowitz was suspended twice for acting out after the 2018 disaster. It took her four years, she said, to focus on academics again. But she credits her teachers and counselors in Paradise for helping her through that difficult time, and getting her back on track: She graduated from high school in June and plans to join the Army, pursuing her goal of becoming a K-9 handler. Striking a balance between mental health and academics is essential for recovery efforts to be sustainable, Paradise educators and students say, given how long those efforts take, “People see disasters on the news and they think, ‘Oh, that happened, it’ll be over after a year,” said Myah Poe, a recent graduate of HomeTech charter school in Paradise. She lost her home in the fire and bounced around motels and rentals with her family before they were finally able to rebuild and return to Paradise two years ago. “It’s not. It stays with you for a long, long time.” Poe is now planning to enroll in community college and transfer to a four-year university. Her intended major: engineering, inspired in part by the builders resurrecting her hometown. ![A wide-view of a classroom as students sit in round tables and raise their hands in the air.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_17.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) ![A high school student — with long black hair and wearing a black t-shirt and jean shorts — leans against a wall with flyers posted on it, as they pose for a photo.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_57.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) First: Students in a classroom at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. Last: Myah Poe, a senior at HomeTech Charter in Paradise, at the Boys & Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters Taylor remembers the first signs of renewal in Paradise, when the town became something more than an ashy moonscape. First a gas station opened, then a grocery was rebuilt, and eventually the Gold Nugget celebration returned. Even Joy Lyn’s candy shop reopened. For Taylor, the pivotal moment came when her school was able to move back to its original campus after operating out of a church in Chico for three years. Families sobbed when they saw the new playground and the freshly painted school buildings. The next milestone, she and others said, must be academic. Teachers need to set higher expectations, and schools need to provide tutoring and other support to help students catch up. Emotional wellness and academic rigor should not be mutually exclusive, Taylor said. It’s a lesson recovering schools are applying in other disaster-torn parts of the country. Just two years after Maui’s devastating fires, for example, Lahainaluna High has doubled down on college preparation for students, introducing an Advanced Placement seminar class last fall that challenged students with intense research projects and writing assignments. The school has also increased enforcement of students’ attendance, contacting parents when their kids don’t show up to class. While the rigor and heightened accountability have been daunting for some students, many rose to the challenge and are proud of what they’ve achieved in school, according to Chapin, the local high school teacher. “I think our successes this year have crowded out a lot of stuff that could have paralyzed us,” he said. Paradise Unified broke ground in June on rebuilding its main elementary school. The 46,000-square-foot campus will include a STEM lab, soccer field and outdoor stage. “It took almost five years before we could see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Taylor said. “But now the light is shining very bright.” Statistical journalist Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett of CalMatters contributed to this story. ## READ NEXT [![California’s wildfire smoke and climate change: 4 things to know](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/AP22251803352628.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)](https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/09/california-wildfire-smoke-climate-change/) ### [California’s wildfire smoke and climate change: 4 things to know](https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/09/california-wildfire-smoke-climate-change/) September 5, 2023 [![Drones, satellites and AI: How California fights its unpredictable wildfires with analytics](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/062923-Jon-Heggie-CalFire-KC-CM-006.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)](https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2023/07/california-wildfires-analytics-technology/) ### [Drones, satellites and AI: How California fights its unpredictable wildfires with analytics](https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2023/07/california-wildfires-analytics-technology/) July 12, 2023 July 12, 2023 Read more from CalMatters [![](https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/engage_text_icon.png) Text Get breaking news on your phone.](https://joinsubtext.com/calmatters) [![](https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/engage_download_icon.png) Download Keep up with the latest via our app.](https://urlgeni.us/calmatters-app) [![](https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/engage_subscribe_icon.png) Sign up Receive free updates in your inbox.](https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/) ## Nonpartisan, independent California news for all We’re CalMatters, your nonprofit and nonpartisan news guide. Our journalists are here to empower you and our mission continues to be essential. - We are independent and nonpartisan. Our trustworthy journalism is free from partisan politics, free from corporate influence and actually free for all Californians. - We are focused on California issues. From the environment to homelessness, economy and more, we publish the unfettered truth to keep you informed. - We hold people in power accountable. We probe and reveal the actions and inactions of powerful people and institutions, and the consequences that follow. But we can’t keep doing this without support from readers like you. ![](https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Asset-2ii-2.png) ********Please give what you can today. Every gift helps.****** [GIVE NOW](https://give.calmatters.org/campaign/564470/donate?c_src=website&c_src2=homepage) Tagged: [education](https://calmatters.org/tag/education/), [environment](https://calmatters.org/tag/environment/), [K-12 education](https://calmatters.org/tag/k-12-education/), [Mental Health](https://calmatters.org/tag/mental-health/), [wildfires](https://calmatters.org/tag/wildfires/) [![Avatar photo](https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/cropped-Carolyn-Jones-120x120.jpg)](https://calmatters.org/author/carolyn-jones/) ## [Carolyn JonesK-12 Education Reporter](https://calmatters.org/author/carolyn-jones/) [carolyn@calmatters.org](mailto:carolyn@calmatters.org) Carolyn Jones covers K-12 education at CalMatters. A longtime news reporter, she’s covered education for nearly a decade, focusing on everything from special education to state funding policies to inequities... [More by Carolyn Jones](https://calmatters.org/author/carolyn-jones/) [![](https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Megan-Headshot-200x200.jpg?crop=1)](https://calmatters.org/author/megan-tagami/) ## [Megan Tagami](https://calmatters.org/author/megan-tagami/) [mtagami@civilbeat.org](mailto:mtagami@civilbeat.org) Megan Tagami is a reporter covering education for Honolulu Civil Beat. She is a former fellow with the CalMatters College Journalism Network. [More by Megan Tagami](https://calmatters.org/author/megan-tagami/) [![](https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Sharon-Lurye-200x200.jpeg?crop=1)](https://calmatters.org/author/sharon-lurye/) ## [Sharon Lurye](https://calmatters.org/author/sharon-lurye/) [slurye@ap.org](mailto:slurye@ap.org) Sharon Lurye is the data reporter for The Associated Press’ Education Reporting Network. [More by Sharon Lurye](https://calmatters.org/author/sharon-lurye/) ###### Republish ### Seven years after California’s deadliest fire, schools — and kids — are still recovering We love that you want to share our stories with your readers. Hundreds of publications republish our work on a regular basis. All of the articles at CalMatters are available to republish for free, under the following conditions: - - Give prominent credit to our journalists: Credit our authors at the top of the article and any other byline areas of your publication. 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Contact us at [republish@calmatters.org](mailto:republish@calmatters.org). \<!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ --\> \<h1\>Seven years after California\&\#8217;s deadliest fire, schools — and kids — are still recovering\</h1\> \<p\>By \<a href="https://calmatters.org/author/carolyn-jones/" title="Posts by Carolyn Jones" class="author url fn" rel="author"\>Carolyn Jones\</a\>, \<a href="https://calmatters.org/author/megan-tagami/" title="Posts by Megan Tagami" class="author url fn" rel="author"\>Megan Tagami\</a\> and \<a href="https://calmatters.org/author/sharon-lurye/" title="Posts by Sharon Lurye" class="author url fn" rel="author"\>Sharon Lurye\</a\>, CalMatters\</p\> \<figure\> \<img width="1200" height="800" src="https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_19.jpg?fit=1200%2C800\&ssl=1" class="attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" alt="Students, some sitting and some standing, write on individual pieces of paper while they work on an assignment inside a classroom. The room is decorates with hand-drawn paper butterflies and multi-colored round laterns." decoding="async" loading="lazy" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_19.jpg?w=2000\&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_19.jpg?resize=300%2C200\&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_19.jpg?resize=1024%2C682\&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_19.jpg?resize=768%2C512\&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_19.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024\&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_19.jpg?resize=18%2C12\&ssl=1 18w, https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_19.jpg?resize=1200%2C800\&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_19.jpg?resize=780%2C520\&ssl=1 780w, https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_19.jpg?resize=400%2C267\&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_19.jpg?fit=1200%2C800\&ssl=1\&w=370 370w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /\> \<figcaption\>Students work on activities in a classroom at Achieve Charter School of Paradise in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\</figcaption\> \</figure\> \<p\>This story was originally published by \<a href="https://calmatters.org/"\>CalMatters\</a\>. \<a href="https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/"\>Sign up\</a\> for their newsletters.\</p\> \<p\>\<em\>CalMatters is collaborating with The Associated Press, Honolulu Civil Beat, Blue Ridge Public Radio, and Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico to examine how school communities are recovering from the disruption of natural disasters.\</em\>\</p\> \<p\>Nearly seven years after \<a href="https://apnews.com/article/paradise-wildfire-california-anniversary-five-years-b4434481c38e6a02e9f2d376ac172b04"\>Paradise was ravaged by wildfire\</a\>, the foothill town smells like pine trees again. New homes are sprouting up on once-scorched lots. Construction trucks rumble through neighborhoods. An ice cream shop recently opened around the corner from the newly rebuilt high school.\ \</p\> \<p\>But in the town’s classrooms, recovery has been more complicated — and much slower. Even as Paradise gradually rebuilds schools lost to California’s 2018 Camp Fire, officials have found getting kids on track academically — and recreating a tight-knit, thriving school community — is a lot tougher than just flipping on the lights at a new campus.\</p\> \<p\>“We’ll get there, but we have not yet recovered,” said Superintendent Tom Taylor before he retired in May. “We’re not yet where we want to be.”\</p\> \<p\>One of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade. Damaged schools, lost homes and layers of trauma have left a mark on thousands of children — a scenario sure to continue as climate change makes these events more frequent and more intense.\ \</p\> \<p\>The challenges that persist in Paradise are a reminder of how long learning recovery can take — and a lesson on how schools can give traumatized kids a better chance of thriving long term.\ \</p\> \<p\>It’s also a lesson on how to balance mental health and academics in the years following a disaster — and a glimpse into the challenges facing schools in Los Angeles after last year’s fires. For most students, the Camp Fire and its aftermath made it almost impossible to focus on schoolwork. Schools pushed academics aside in favor of mental health, a move that most agreed was necessary but set students back months if not years academically. \</p\> \<p\>“People think, natural disaster — mental health. They don't think about the academic component to it,” said Carrie Dawes, health and wellness coordinator for Paradise Unified. “You put that aside when you have a little kiddo crying because they don't have a house to live in. You're not going to say, ‘OK, snap out of it. We’ve got math to do.’”\</p\> \<h2\>Camp Fire left students in a lingering academic malaise\</h2\> \<p\>In the Paradise disaster's wake, students found themselves moving frequently. Schools were temporarily housed in unusual places — hardware stores, warehouses, churches. Nearly everyone was consumed by anxiety and grief. Learning fell to the wayside.\</p\> \<p\>Kenny Michael, a high school senior, was in fifth grade when the fire erupted. Although her immediate family was safe, some beloved neighbors died. Michael spent months grappling with family strife, loss and stress, including over her grandmother's missing cats.\</p\> \<p\>“It wasn’t just a matter of the fire hitting,” Michael said. “It was all this other stuff, too.”\ \</p\> \<p\>Once an enthusiastic learner, Michael failed fifth grade and lost interest in school, saying she was too distracted and exhausted to concentrate on classroom lessons. She’s now living with her grandmother in Magalia, a small community adjacent to Paradise, and attends an online school. She takes solace in talking to friends and writing horror and fantasy stories — about fire.\ \</p\> \<p\>But she has no immediate plans to attend college after she graduates this year.\</p\> \<figure\>\<img src="https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_53-819x1024.jpg" alt="A person, with short ginger hair and with gray headphones resting around their neck, stands in between bushes of lavender and red flower while posing for a photo."/\>\<figcaption\>Kenny Michael outside of the Boys \& Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\</figcaption\>\</figure\> \<p\>This is typical for Paradise teens. Last year, only \<a href="https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/04615310000000/2024"\>13% of graduating seniors\</a\> in Paradise Unified met the entrance requirements for California’s public universities or completed a career training program, compared with 45% statewide. Last year, not one student from Paradise Unified enrolled as a freshman at the University of California.\</p\> \<p\>Test scores reflect the academic malaise, prolonged by the pandemic. Among eighth graders, only 11% met the state’s standard for math. Just 18% of sixth graders were reading at grade level. The numbers were even worse for low-income students.\</p\> \<p\>The statistics show that, even once the immediate effects of the fire subsided, academics continued their downward spiral.\ \</p\> \<h2\>Disaster-related absences take a steep toll on learning\</h2\> \<p\>Before the Camp Fire roared through Butte County in November 2018, Paradise was a quiet, woodsy town filled with families and retirees. There was a movie theater, a bowling alley, a pet store and a Foster’s Freeze. Everyone loved the \<a href="https://www.joylynscandies.com"\>beer brittle at Joy Lyn’s candy shop\</a\>. In April, residents celebrated Gold Nugget Days with a parade, chili cook-off and a Miss Gold Nugget contest.\ \ \</p\> \<p\>Within a few hours, all of that was gone. The Gold Rush-era town was almost entirely wiped out in the fire. Eighty-five people died, including some in their cars as they tried to escape. More than 18,000 buildings burned, including most of the town’s dozen schools. At least 26,000 people were displaced.\</p\> \<p\>Schools began the long process of recovery as the chaos began to settle: locating students, finding new facilities, assessing the damage and getting academics back on track after nearly a month of canceled classes.\ \</p\> \<p\>It’s been a protracted process.\ \</p\> \<figure\>\<img src="https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_21-1024x682.jpg" alt="A close-up view of an illustrative map that shows notable places in Paradise, California."/\>\<figcaption\>An illustrated map of Paradise at Achieve Charter School of Paradise in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\</figcaption\>\</figure\> \<figure\> \<figure\>\<img src="https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_16-1024x682.jpg" alt="A wide view of students playing on an asphalt playground on a clear day. Trees, dirt and some growing vegetation can be seen nearby. The top of a wired fence can be seen in the foreground."/\>\</figure\> \<figure\>\<img src="https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_44-1024x682.jpg" alt="An empty lot with dirt and gravel on it. A small for sale sign can be seen in the foreground."/\>\</figure\> \<figcaption\>\<strong\>First:\</strong\> Students play on the playground at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. \<strong\>Last:\</strong\> An empty lot in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\</figcaption\>\</figure\> \<p\>During the 2018-19 school year, the Paradise Unified School District reported 154 closure days across its dozen schools as a result of the Camp Fire, impacting about 4,200 students, according to \<a href="https://disasterdays.calmatters.org/california-school-closures/school-district/paradise-unified/"\>data analysis\</a\> by CalMatters. But the impacts of the Camp Fire were far reaching, impacting nearly 1 million students across the state — 15% of all students that year — as drifting smoke prompted more than 1,600 schools to close.\</p\> \<p\>In the following five years, Paradise schools reported up to 10 closure days a year, mostly from winter storms and shutting off the power to lower fire risks on dry and windy days.\</p\> \<p\>Since 2022-23, kids in California have lost more than 3.5 million days of learning because of disasters, according to UndauntedK12, a policy and research group. And that learning loss is magnified because of the stress associated with such catastrophes.\ \</p\> \<p\>It’s not uncommon for students to miss school after a natural disaster, either because they’ve suddenly become homeless or due to mental health struggles, or both. But disaster-related absenteeism can take an especially steep toll on students’ learning, according to\<a href="https://www.nwea.org/blog/2024/how-to-meet-student-needs-following-inclement-weather-related-school-closures/"\> research from the NWEA\</a\>, a not-for-profit education research firm. Middle schoolers who lose a week of school due to extreme weather actually miss three weeks of progress in reading and almost four weeks in math, researchers found, most likely due to trouble concentrating.\</p\> \<p\>It’s a concern facing a growing number of schools nationwide.\</p\> \<p\>In North Carolina, some students lost two months’ worth of class this past academic year because of both Hurricane Helene last September and other extreme weather events. The historic Category 4 storm damaged tens of thousands of homes and numerous school buildings, causing mass displacement and academic setbacks.\ \</p\> \<p\>In Hawaii, the deadly August 2023 Lahaina wildfires resulted in students at four schools losing at least five weeks of learning days. At King Kamehameha III Elementary, a historic elementary school that burned down in the fires, kids lost more than 50 days of instruction.\ \</p\> \<p\>The compound effects of missed class time are evident in Lahaina. Students’ test scores took a sharp dip in the school year after the disaster as kids transitioned between online classes, learning hubs and schools outside of West Maui. Only 29% of King Kamehameha III’s students tested proficient in math in spring 2024, for example, compared with 46% the year before.\ \</p\> \<p\>Even at the three Lahaina public schools that remained standing after the fires, students weren’t able to return to the campuses until mid-October because of debris cleanup and environmental testing.\ \ \</p\> \<p\>Students struggled to find motivation in school or attended class sporadically before the fires, according to Lahainaluna High School teacher Jarrett Chapin, and the disaster made matters worse. In the 2023-24 school year, 28% of Lahainaluna students were proficient in English, compared with nearly 50% the year before the fire. Only 5% of kids tested proficient in math.\ \</p\> \<h2\>Finding normalcy can be a struggle after a disaster\</h2\> \<p\>In Paradise, even as the town’s schools set about rebuilding damaged campuses and tending to students and families, the community faced another reality: It would never be the same.\</p\> \<p\>Casey Taylor, Achieve Charter School superintendent, described the first few months after the fire as the “hero phase,” where the community pulled together and vowed to resurrect their town. “Paradise Strong” and “We Will Rebuild” signs proliferated.\ \</p\> \<p\>But then a more difficult period ensued, rife with disillusionment. Fire survivors got tired of living out of suitcases, and many were daunted by the hassle and expense of rebuilding. Old friends and neighbors started moving away, bringing further layers of loss, Taylor said.\ \</p\> \<p\>“It hurts,” said Taylor, a Paradise native whose own home was destroyed in the fire. “Your community just starts spiraling.”\ \</p\> \<figure\>\<img src="https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_51-1024x682.jpg" alt="A reader board for Paradise Cinemas that reads \"Paradise Strong\" and \"Paradise will rise again\""/\>\<figcaption\>A hopeful sign at the Paradise Cinemas in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\</figcaption\>\</figure\> \<p\>Enrollment in Paradise Unified has been increasing, but is still less than half what it was before the fire — 1,657 last year, compared with 3,441 in 2017. And the student body is a bit different from before the fire: lower-income, more diverse, more students with disabilities. At least a quarter of the students are new to Paradise entirely and didn’t experience the fire.\</p\> \<p\>In retrospect, it’s clear teachers — and not just kids — needed more support to deal with these changes. Taylor and other Paradise school officials now advise other districts that have experienced a natural disaster, and their top suggestion is to make sure the adults are cared for, too.\</p\> \<p\>“We found that initially, the adults needed attention the most. You think it’s going to be the kids, but they’re so much more resilient in the moment,” said Michelle Zevely, Butte County Office of Education’s deputy superintendent of student programs and education support.\ \</p\> \<p\>In Paradise, the community relied on teachers to serve as a backbone amid the chaos. But many teachers also lost their homes, which meant they were haggling with insurance companies while finding new places to live and commuting long distances — in some cases, more than 100 miles — to be with their students every day.\</p\> \<p\>“Teachers just needed to talk, or to cry, but they couldn’t because they’re in the classroom and the students were their top priority,” said Tamara Conry, a former math teacher at Paradise Intermediate School who now works for the state teachers union.\</p\> \<h2\>When academics fall by the wayside\</h2\> \<p\>Another lesson from Paradise is the importance of prioritizing academics even when the impulse is to drop everything in favor of mental health. The first few years after the fire, school days were dedicated almost entirely to social-emotional activities as therapists and counselors were dispatched to campuses.\ \</p\> \<p\>“In the beginning, we did a lot of art and singing. Taking daily walks. We had baby goats and therapy dogs,” said Taylor. “We spent a lot of time talking about emotions, because that’s what we needed.”\</p\> \<p\>The mental-health focus was indeed necessary. Aryah Berkowitz, who was in sixth grade at Achieve charter school when the fire took her home, two of her dogs and her family’s business, said the therapy and teachers’ social-emotional offerings were instrumental in helping her through those difficult years after the fire.\</p\> \<p\>But those activities shouldn’t come at the expense of algebra and reading, Taylor said.\ \</p\> \<p\>Once an ambitious student, Berkowitz was suspended twice for acting out after the 2018 disaster. It took her four years, she said, to focus on academics again. But she credits her teachers and counselors in Paradise for helping her through that difficult time, and getting her back on track: She graduated from high school in June and plans to join the Army, pursuing her goal of becoming a K-9 handler.\ \ \</p\> \<p\>Striking a balance between mental health and academics is essential for recovery efforts to be sustainable, Paradise educators and students say, given how long those efforts take, “People see disasters on the news and they think, ‘Oh, that happened, it’ll be over after a year,” said Myah Poe, a recent graduate of HomeTech charter school in Paradise. She lost her home in the fire and bounced around motels and rentals with her family before they were finally able to rebuild and return to Paradise two years ago. “It’s not. It stays with you for a long, long time.”\</p\> \<p\>Poe is now planning to enroll in community college and transfer to a four-year university. Her intended major: engineering, inspired in part by the builders resurrecting her hometown.\</p\> \<figure\> \<figure\>\<img src="https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_17-1024x682.jpg" alt="A wide-view of a classroom as students sit in round tables and raise their hands in the air."/\>\</figure\> \<figure\>\<img src="https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125\_Paradise-School-Mental-Health\_MG\_CM\_57-1024x682.jpg" alt="A high school student — with long black hair and wearing a black t-shirt and jean shorts — leans against a wall with flyers posted on it, as they pose for a photo."/\>\</figure\> \<figcaption\>\<strong\>First:\</strong\> Students in a classroom at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. \<strong\>Last:\</strong\> Myah Poe, a senior at HomeTech Charter in Paradise, at the Boys \& Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\<br\>\</figcaption\>\</figure\> \<p\>Taylor remembers the first signs of renewal in Paradise, when the town became something more than an ashy moonscape. First a gas station opened, then a grocery was rebuilt, and eventually the Gold Nugget celebration returned. Even Joy Lyn’s candy shop reopened.\ \</p\> \<p\>For Taylor, the pivotal moment came when her school was able to move back to its original campus after operating out of a church in Chico for three years. Families sobbed when they saw the new playground and the freshly painted school buildings.\</p\> \<p\>The next milestone, she and others said, must be academic. Teachers need to set higher expectations, and schools need to provide tutoring and other support to help students catch up. Emotional wellness and academic rigor should not be mutually exclusive, Taylor said.\ \</p\> \<p\>It’s a lesson recovering schools are applying in other disaster-torn parts of the country.\ \</p\> \<p\>Just two years after Maui’s devastating fires, for example, Lahainaluna High has doubled down on college preparation for students, introducing an Advanced Placement seminar class last fall that challenged students with intense research projects and writing assignments. The school has also increased enforcement of students’ attendance, contacting parents when their kids don’t show up to class.\ \</p\> \<p\>While the rigor and heightened accountability have been daunting for some students, many rose to the challenge and are proud of what they’ve achieved in school, according to Chapin, the local high school teacher. “I think our successes this year have crowded out a lot of stuff that could have paralyzed us,” he said.\ \</p\> \<p\>Paradise Unified broke ground in June on rebuilding its main elementary school. The 46,000-square-foot campus will include a STEM lab, soccer field and outdoor stage.\ \</p\> \<p\>“It took almost five years before we could see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Taylor said. “But now the light is shining very bright.”\</p\> \<p\>\<em\>Statistical journalist Natasha \</em\>\<em\>Uzcátegui-Liggett of CalMatters contributed to this story.\</em\>\</p\> \<p\>\<br\>\</p\> \<p\>This article was \<a href="https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/09/wildfire-california-schools/"\>originally published on CalMatters\</a\> and was republished under the \<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/"\>Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\</a\> license.\</p\> Copy HTML [![CalMatters logo](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/footer_logo_large.png?fit=400%2C80&ssl=1)](https://calmatters.org/) - [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/calmatters.org) - [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/calmatters/) - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/calmatters/) - [X](https://x.com/CalMatters) - [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@calmatters) - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/calmatters/) - [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/calmatters) ## About - [Overview](https://calmatters.org/about/) - [Impact](https://calmatters.org/about/impact/) - [Funding](https://calmatters.org/about/funding/) - [News and Awards](https://calmatters.org/about/news-and-awards/) - [Policies](https://calmatters.org/about/policies-and-standards/) - [Programs](https://calmatters.org/about/programs/) - [Sponsorships](https://calmatters.org/about/advertise/) - [Our Team](https://calmatters.org/about/team/) - [Jobs](https://calmatters.org/about/jobs/) - [Contact Us](https://calmatters.org/about/contact-us/) ## Topics - [Politics](https://calmatters.org/category/politics/) - [Justice](https://calmatters.org/category/justice/) - [Economy](https://calmatters.org/category/economy/) - [Education](https://calmatters.org/category/education/) - [Environment](https://calmatters.org/category/environment/) - [Housing](https://calmatters.org/category/housing/) - [Health](https://calmatters.org/category/health/) - [Commentary](https://calmatters.org/category/commentary/) - [Inequality](https://calmatters.org/category/california-divide/) ## More - [Donate](https://give.calmatters.org/campaign/564470/donate?c_src=website&c_src2=footer) - [Manage donation](https://calmatters.org/about/contact-us/#manage-your-donation) - [Newsletters](https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/) - [CalMatters en Español](https://calmatters.org/category/calmatters-en-espanol/) - [Inside the Newsroom](https://calmatters.org/category/inside-the-newsroom/) - [Digital Democracy](https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/) ## General Inquiries [info@calmatters.org](mailto:info@calmatters.org) ## Membership Inquiries [membership@calmatters.org](mailto:membership@calmatters.org) 1. 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Readable Markdown	In summary One of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade. CalMatters is collaborating with The Associated Press, Honolulu Civil Beat, Blue Ridge Public Radio, and Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico to examine how school communities are recovering from the disruption of natural disasters. Nearly seven years after [Paradise was ravaged by wildfire](https://apnews.com/article/paradise-wildfire-california-anniversary-five-years-b4434481c38e6a02e9f2d376ac172b04), the foothill town smells like pine trees again. New homes are sprouting up on once-scorched lots. Construction trucks rumble through neighborhoods. An ice cream shop recently opened around the corner from the newly rebuilt high school. But in the town’s classrooms, recovery has been more complicated — and much slower. Even as Paradise gradually rebuilds schools lost to California’s 2018 Camp Fire, officials have found getting kids on track academically — and recreating a tight-knit, thriving school community — is a lot tougher than just flipping on the lights at a new campus. “We’ll get there, but we have not yet recovered,” said Superintendent Tom Taylor before he retired in May. “We’re not yet where we want to be.” One of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, the Camp Fire is among the many natural disasters that have upended student learning over the past decade. Damaged schools, lost homes and layers of trauma have left a mark on thousands of children — a scenario sure to continue as climate change makes these events more frequent and more intense. The challenges that persist in Paradise are a reminder of how long learning recovery can take — and a lesson on how schools can give traumatized kids a better chance of thriving long term. It’s also a lesson on how to balance mental health and academics in the years following a disaster — and a glimpse into the challenges facing schools in Los Angeles after last year’s fires. For most students, the Camp Fire and its aftermath made it almost impossible to focus on schoolwork. Schools pushed academics aside in favor of mental health, a move that most agreed was necessary but set students back months if not years academically. ![A firefighter searches for human remains in a trailer park destroyed in the Camp Fire on Nov. 16, 2018, in Paradise. A lobbyist seeking a \$1.5-billion state loan to help tens of thousands of victims of devastating California wildfires is leaving his job amid a sexual harassment scandal. The PG\&E Fire Victim Trust reported Wednesday, April 20, 2022 that Patrick McCallum and the trust “have agreed to part ways." Photo by John Locher, AP Photo](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/042222-CAMP-FIRE-AP-JL-CM.jpg?resize=1024%2C668&ssl=1) A firefighter searches for human remains in a trailer park destroyed in the Camp Fire in Paradise on Nov. 16, 2018. Photo by John Locher, AP Photo “People think, natural disaster — mental health. They don’t think about the academic component to it,” said Carrie Dawes, health and wellness coordinator for Paradise Unified. “You put that aside when you have a little kiddo crying because they don’t have a house to live in. You’re not going to say, ‘OK, snap out of it. We’ve got math to do.’” ## Camp Fire left students in a lingering academic malaise In the Paradise disaster’s wake, students found themselves moving frequently. Schools were temporarily housed in unusual places — hardware stores, warehouses, churches. Nearly everyone was consumed by anxiety and grief. Learning fell to the wayside. Kenny Michael, a high school senior, was in fifth grade when the fire erupted. Although her immediate family was safe, some beloved neighbors died. Michael spent months grappling with family strife, loss and stress, including over her grandmother’s missing cats. “It wasn’t just a matter of the fire hitting,” Michael said. “It was all this other stuff, too.” Once an enthusiastic learner, Michael failed fifth grade and lost interest in school, saying she was too distracted and exhausted to concentrate on classroom lessons. She’s now living with her grandmother in Magalia, a small community adjacent to Paradise, and attends an online school. She takes solace in talking to friends and writing horror and fantasy stories — about fire. But she has no immediate plans to attend college after she graduates this year. ![A person, with short ginger hair and with gray headphones resting around their neck, stands in between bushes of lavender and red flower while posing for a photo.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_53.jpg?resize=819%2C1024&ssl=1) Kenny Michael outside of the Boys & Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters This is typical for Paradise teens. Last year, only [13% of graduating seniors](https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/04615310000000/2024) in Paradise Unified met the entrance requirements for California’s public universities or completed a career training program, compared with 45% statewide. Last year, not one student from Paradise Unified enrolled as a freshman at the University of California. Test scores reflect the academic malaise, prolonged by the pandemic. Among eighth graders, only 11% met the state’s standard for math. Just 18% of sixth graders were reading at grade level. The numbers were even worse for low-income students. ## READ NEXT The statistics show that, even once the immediate effects of the fire subsided, academics continued their downward spiral. Before the Camp Fire roared through Butte County in November 2018, Paradise was a quiet, woodsy town filled with families and retirees. There was a movie theater, a bowling alley, a pet store and a Foster’s Freeze. Everyone loved the [beer brittle at Joy Lyn’s candy shop](https://www.joylynscandies.com/). In April, residents celebrated Gold Nugget Days with a parade, chili cook-off and a Miss Gold Nugget contest. Within a few hours, all of that was gone. The Gold Rush-era town was almost entirely wiped out in the fire. Eighty-five people died, including some in their cars as they tried to escape. More than 18,000 buildings burned, including most of the town’s dozen schools. At least 26,000 people were displaced. Schools began the long process of recovery as the chaos began to settle: locating students, finding new facilities, assessing the damage and getting academics back on track after nearly a month of canceled classes. It’s been a protracted process. ![A close-up view of an illustrative map that shows notable places in Paradise, California.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_21.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) An illustrated map of Paradise at Achieve Charter School of Paradise in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters ![A wide view of students playing on an asphalt playground on a clear day. Trees, dirt and some growing vegetation can be seen nearby. The top of a wired fence can be seen in the foreground.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_16.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) ![An empty lot with dirt and gravel on it. A small for sale sign can be seen in the foreground.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_44.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) First: Students play on the playground at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. Last: An empty lot in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters During the 2018-19 school year, the Paradise Unified School District reported 154 closure days across its dozen schools as a result of the Camp Fire, impacting about 4,200 students, according to [data analysis](https://disasterdays.calmatters.org/california-school-closures/school-district/paradise-unified/) by CalMatters. But the impacts of the Camp Fire were far reaching, impacting nearly 1 million students across the state — 15% of all students that year — as drifting smoke prompted more than 1,600 schools to close. In the following five years, Paradise schools reported up to 10 closure days a year, mostly from winter storms and shutting off the power to lower fire risks on dry and windy days. Since 2022-23, kids in California have lost more than 3.5 million days of learning because of disasters, according to UndauntedK12, a policy and research group. And that learning loss is magnified because of the stress associated with such catastrophes. It’s not uncommon for students to miss school after a natural disaster, either because they’ve suddenly become homeless or due to mental health struggles, or both. But disaster-related absenteeism can take an especially steep toll on students’ learning, according to [research from the NWEA](https://www.nwea.org/blog/2024/how-to-meet-student-needs-following-inclement-weather-related-school-closures/), a not-for-profit education research firm. Middle schoolers who lose a week of school due to extreme weather actually miss three weeks of progress in reading and almost four weeks in math, researchers found, most likely due to trouble concentrating. It’s a concern facing a growing number of schools nationwide. ![A pocket of sunlight illuminates a elementary-age student sitting on a table as they read a book while surrounded by other students. The tables are place within an outdoor pavilion.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/100323_Lahaina-Fire-School_AP_CM_01.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) Sacred Hearts School third-grade students read a book during an English language arts class at their temporary school site at Sacred Hearts Mission Church in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Oct. 3, 2023. Photo by Mengshin Lin, AP Photo In North Carolina, some students lost two months’ worth of class this past academic year because of both Hurricane Helene last September and other extreme weather events. The historic Category 4 storm damaged tens of thousands of homes and numerous school buildings, causing mass displacement and academic setbacks. In Hawaii, the deadly August 2023 Lahaina wildfires resulted in students at four schools losing at least five weeks of learning days. At King Kamehameha III Elementary, a historic elementary school that burned down in the fires, kids lost more than 50 days of instruction. The compound effects of missed class time are evident in Lahaina. Students’ test scores took a sharp dip in the school year after the disaster as kids transitioned between online classes, learning hubs and schools outside of West Maui. Only 29% of King Kamehameha III’s students tested proficient in math in spring 2024, for example, compared with 46% the year before. Even at the three Lahaina public schools that remained standing after the fires, students weren’t able to return to the campuses until mid-October because of debris cleanup and environmental testing. Students struggled to find motivation in school or attended class sporadically before the fires, according to Lahainaluna High School teacher Jarrett Chapin, and the disaster made matters worse. In the 2023-24 school year, 28% of Lahainaluna students were proficient in English, compared with nearly 50% the year before the fire. Only 5% of kids tested proficient in math. ## Finding normalcy can be a struggle after a disaster In Paradise, even as the town’s schools set about rebuilding damaged campuses and tending to students and families, the community faced another reality: It would never be the same. Casey Taylor, Achieve Charter School superintendent, described the first few months after the fire as the “hero phase,” where the community pulled together and vowed to resurrect their town. “Paradise Strong” and “We Will Rebuild” signs proliferated. But then a more difficult period ensued, rife with disillusionment. Fire survivors got tired of living out of suitcases, and many were daunted by the hassle and expense of rebuilding. Old friends and neighbors started moving away, bringing further layers of loss, Taylor said. “It hurts,” said Taylor, a Paradise native whose own home was destroyed in the fire. “Your community just starts spiraling.” ![A reader board for Paradise Cinemas that reads "Paradise Strong" and "Paradise will rise again"](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_51.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) A hopeful sign at the Paradise Cinemas in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters Enrollment in Paradise Unified has been increasing, but is still less than half what it was before the fire — 1,657 last year, compared with 3,441 in 2017. And the student body is a bit different from before the fire: lower-income, more diverse, more students with disabilities. At least a quarter of the students are new to Paradise entirely and didn’t experience the fire. In retrospect, it’s clear teachers — and not just kids — needed more support to deal with these changes. Taylor and other Paradise school officials now advise other districts that have experienced a natural disaster, and their top suggestion is to make sure the adults are cared for, too. “We found that initially, the adults needed attention the most. You think it’s going to be the kids, but they’re so much more resilient in the moment,” said Michelle Zevely, Butte County Office of Education’s deputy superintendent of student programs and education support. In Paradise, the community relied on teachers to serve as a backbone amid the chaos. But many teachers also lost their homes, which meant they were haggling with insurance companies while finding new places to live and commuting long distances — in some cases, more than 100 miles — to be with their students every day. “Teachers just needed to talk, or to cry, but they couldn’t because they’re in the classroom and the students were their top priority,” said Tamara Conry, a former math teacher at Paradise Intermediate School who now works for the state teachers union. ## When academics fall by the wayside Another lesson from Paradise is the importance of prioritizing academics even when the impulse is to drop everything in favor of mental health. The first few years after the fire, school days were dedicated almost entirely to social-emotional activities as therapists and counselors were dispatched to campuses. “In the beginning, we did a lot of art and singing. Taking daily walks. We had baby goats and therapy dogs,” said Taylor. “We spent a lot of time talking about emotions, because that’s what we needed.” The mental-health focus was indeed necessary. Aryah Berkowitz, who was in sixth grade at Achieve charter school when the fire took her home, two of her dogs and her family’s business, said the therapy and teachers’ social-emotional offerings were instrumental in helping her through those difficult years after the fire. But those activities shouldn’t come at the expense of algebra and reading, Taylor said. Once an ambitious student, Berkowitz was suspended twice for acting out after the 2018 disaster. It took her four years, she said, to focus on academics again. But she credits her teachers and counselors in Paradise for helping her through that difficult time, and getting her back on track: She graduated from high school in June and plans to join the Army, pursuing her goal of becoming a K-9 handler. Striking a balance between mental health and academics is essential for recovery efforts to be sustainable, Paradise educators and students say, given how long those efforts take, “People see disasters on the news and they think, ‘Oh, that happened, it’ll be over after a year,” said Myah Poe, a recent graduate of HomeTech charter school in Paradise. She lost her home in the fire and bounced around motels and rentals with her family before they were finally able to rebuild and return to Paradise two years ago. “It’s not. It stays with you for a long, long time.” Poe is now planning to enroll in community college and transfer to a four-year university. Her intended major: engineering, inspired in part by the builders resurrecting her hometown. ![A wide-view of a classroom as students sit in round tables and raise their hands in the air.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_17.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) ![A high school student — with long black hair and wearing a black t-shirt and jean shorts — leans against a wall with flyers posted on it, as they pose for a photo.](https://i0.wp.com/calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/052125_Paradise-School-Mental-Health_MG_CM_57.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1) First: Students in a classroom at Achieve Charter School of Paradise. Last: Myah Poe, a senior at HomeTech Charter in Paradise, at the Boys & Girls Club of Paradise Teen Center in Paradise on May 21, 2025. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters Taylor remembers the first signs of renewal in Paradise, when the town became something more than an ashy moonscape. First a gas station opened, then a grocery was rebuilt, and eventually the Gold Nugget celebration returned. Even Joy Lyn’s candy shop reopened. For Taylor, the pivotal moment came when her school was able to move back to its original campus after operating out of a church in Chico for three years. Families sobbed when they saw the new playground and the freshly painted school buildings. The next milestone, she and others said, must be academic. Teachers need to set higher expectations, and schools need to provide tutoring and other support to help students catch up. Emotional wellness and academic rigor should not be mutually exclusive, Taylor said. It’s a lesson recovering schools are applying in other disaster-torn parts of the country. Just two years after Maui’s devastating fires, for example, Lahainaluna High has doubled down on college preparation for students, introducing an Advanced Placement seminar class last fall that challenged students with intense research projects and writing assignments. The school has also increased enforcement of students’ attendance, contacting parents when their kids don’t show up to class. While the rigor and heightened accountability have been daunting for some students, many rose to the challenge and are proud of what they’ve achieved in school, according to Chapin, the local high school teacher. “I think our successes this year have crowded out a lot of stuff that could have paralyzed us,” he said. Paradise Unified broke ground in June on rebuilding its main elementary school. The 46,000-square-foot campus will include a STEM lab, soccer field and outdoor stage. “It took almost five years before we could see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Taylor said. “But now the light is shining very bright.” Statistical journalist Natasha Uzcátegui-Liggett of CalMatters contributed to this story. ## READ NEXT
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