Across New Orleans' still-emerging patchwork of regular public schools and charter schools, the emotional, social, and academic damage that the August 2005 hurricane inflicted on the city's children plays out daily, in disruptions to instruction, in schoolyard fights, and in classrooms half-empty because of chronic absenteeism. Over a three-month period this past fall, school-based social workers referred more than 600 students to psychiatrists and other mental-health providers--a result of rising numbers of young people who are depressed, hopeless, angry, and suicidal, said Debra Morton, the behavioral-health-services coordinator for the 12,344-student Recovery School District. A study done by researchers at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, which is based at Columbia University, and the Children's Health Fund, a national organization that provides health care and mental-health services to children and their families in several disadvantaged communities, estimates that from 46,000 to 65,000 Gulf Coast children are struggling with mental-health issues and other problems related to Hurricane Katrina.