Educators from Paradise, California, are planning to start school on Dec 3.

They will not let their students down.

I am thankful for the school bus drivers who took students away from the fire, through the fire, to safety.

I am thankful for these dedicated teachers, administrators and staff, who lost their homes but not their sense of mission. They are heroes.

Since early last week, administrators, teachers and staff have been working out of makeshift offices in the city of Chico. Their first order of business has been locating the families of the more than 3,500 Paradise Unified students to confirm that they survived the fire, find out if they lost their homes and get a sense of their plans going forward.

As of Wednesday, they’d reached nearly 90 percent of the district’s students and none have been reported among the dead, said Butte County Superintendent Tim Taylor. But no one can be certain how many students will actually show up when classes resume, or where.

The students worrying officials the most are those who were already marginalized and living a transient existence, said Dena Kapsalis, principal of Honey Run Academy, a community day school that was destroyed in the fire.

“I am personally aware of dozens and dozens of students who are couch surfers, runaways or otherwise displaced,” Kapsalis said. “Those kiddos are very, very hard to find.”

Marc Kessler, a science teacher at the 600-student Paradise Intermediate School, said he and other teachers and administrators have been able to confirm that 90 percent of that school’s students lost their homes. Families are living in hotels, trailers, tents, said Kessler, who also serves as president of the Paradise Teachers Association.

Kevin Moretti, president of the Chico Unified Teachers Association, described the effort as “organized chaos.” As of now, he said, 150 students from Paradise have enrolled in Chico schools and are expected to start school when classes resume.

These and other displaced students are covered under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a 1987 federal law that, among other things, allows students who are homeless to enroll in school without having to show proof of residency or immunization records.

But Chico Unified can’t handle everyone, not even close. So, Taylor and other officials have spent much of their time this week scouring Chico and the surrounding area for classroom space.

Taylor said Paradise Unified in the immediate term will be a “hopscotch” of classrooms housed in portables and vacant commercial buildings. He said they are close to securing two large vacated retail stores that can be converted into classrooms.

HOW TO HELP THOSE WHO LOST THEIR HOMES.