HADLEY — Since the start of the school year in late August, 18 new students have enrolled at Hopkins Academy and Hadley Elementary School.

For Superintendent Anne McKenzie and the teachers, staff and students at the two public schools, welcoming newcomers is common.

“People move in and out of district all the time, and we’re able to handle that,” McKenzie said.

While McKenzie isn’t allowed to say where these new students live, she has been part of a team involved in meeting with and getting families oriented at the Knights Inn on Route 9, which town and state officials last week identified as a new site in the state’s family shelter system. There, 34 individuals from nine families, including 12 children, are making their home.

Kevin Connor, a spokesman for the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, said in the case of Hadley, which doesn’t yet have a contracted regional social service provider, the Massachusetts National Guard is providing basic human services, at the same time town and school leaders are putting together a task force to respond to new arrivals’ needs, such as food, transportation and medical services, and any public safety concerns that might arise.

Connor is assuring the town that state support will be provided, especially for education.

“School districts will receive emergency aid for transportation, enrollment, and other extra costs incurred that are associated with educating homeless students at a rate of $104 per student per day,” Connor said.

Even with privacy concerns of the new students, McKenzie said she could confirm that the schools have been doing outreach that has included establishing a small working group to coordinate with and do orientation for new families that have become part of the district.

Whenever there is an influx of students, especially in cases where English may not be first language, McKenzie said faculty and staff come with her, especially those who are multilingual and bilingual, to assist in enrolling students and talking with families.

“It was wonderful,” McKenzie said of this experience. Already, she said, that people in the community have been generous and she expects that if clothing and food drives happen, people will step up, despite some negative comments shared on social media that don’t reflect town values, she said.

McKenzie said that 31% of Hadley Elementary students qualify for free and reduced lunch, and 25% do at Hopkins Academy. “A lot of people are in need,” McKenzie said.

What is happening may not be dissimilar from Greenfield, where the Days Inn hotel has been home to a mix of people since June, including long-term families, immigrants and refugee families, including some from Haiti. Mesa Verde restaurant in Greenfield has been preparing food and shared a picture of Jennifer Dowd, the principal at Hadley Elementary, on its Facebook page “picking up Haitian food to welcome new families to her community. Feeling the love in the Pioneer Valley today.”

McKenzie said both state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, and state Rep. Dan Carey, D-Easthampton, have also been responsive.

Connor said the family shelter system has provided temporary, emergency housing for Massachusetts families, as it has for 40 years, and about half of those currently in the shelters are long-term residents of the state. Within the past year, there has been an increase in demand due to both the high cost of housing and new arrivals coming to the state who qualify for emergency shelter.

Hadley is now one of more than 90 cities and towns across the state hosting families in need, with 7,202 families in the system, about half of whom are new arrivals. In addition, about half of the family shelter population is made up of children.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.