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Migrant Education
ZCISD Migrant Education Program
MIGRANT PROGRAM
The Migrant Education Program is a federally funded program designed to provide supplementary educational and support services to eligible migratory agricultural/fisher students.
MISSION
Provide migratory agricultural workers or fishers with improved educational opportunities to help them succeed in the regular school classroom, meet academic content at the State level, achieve students’ standards as expected from regular students, help them graduate from high school, and promote enrollment in higher education programs.
GOAL
Design and support programs to help migratory students achieve academic excellence, equity in the classroom, and overcome challenges of mobility, culture, language, social isolation, and other difficulties associated with the migratory lifestyle. These efforts are aimed at helping migrant students succeed in school, graduate, and successfully transition to post-secondary education/employment.
AREAS OF FOCUS:
Migrant Services Coordination
Identification and Recruitment
New Generation System
Parental Involvement
Early Childhood Education
Secondary Credit Accrual
Graduation Enhancement
How can parents help with identification and recruitment?
You may be asked to provide the following:
- Dates of employment or activity
- Check stubs
- If paid in cash: name, address, and phone number of emploer
- Address of residence
- School, program, or agency information where your children were enrolled or received assistance
- Copy of the Certification of Eligibility (COE) from your place of work
- Name and phone number of neighbor
Seven Areas of Focus
Identification and Recruitment
The Migrant Education Program actively seeks to identify and recruit all eligible migratory children and youth residing in the state. Identification is essential in order to offer migrant students opportunities to learn and succeed in school.
New Generation System (NGS)
The system is used to encode all educational and health data from an identified migrant child and for transferring student information not only within the state but also to the receiving stats that also serve Texas migrant children.
Migrant Service Coordination
This area of focus is required at all grade levels and seeks to ensure that migrant students and their families have their needs for educational and support services met, and are able to access all services for which they are eligible for entry into the Migrant Education Program’s early childhood program for three-year-olds through transition into postsecondary education or employment.
Parental Involvement
Parent Advisory Councils empower parents to be advocates and to take advantage of all available resources for the education of their children. A local advisory committee is established for each regular school year for planning, implementation, and evaluation of the local Migrant Education Program, with meaningful consultation and involvement of the parents of the children to be served.
Early Childhood Education
The emphasis placed on Early Education for three and four-year-olds enhances performance opportunities for young migratory students. The Migrant Education Program provides models for home-based education directly involving parents and school-based early childhood programs which coordinate with other available services such as the "Bright Beginnings" program.
Secondary Credit Exchange and Accrual
As secondary education students move from school to school, documentation of courses taken and recommended becomes significant in their educational development. Districts are also responsible for partial and complete credits awarded by schools.
Graduation Enhancement
The Migrant Education Program promotes the transition to post-secondary education through the promotion of student leadership academies, the development of college entrance exam programs, state assessment performance improvement strategies, correspondence courses, admissions counseling, and coordination of activities that ensure that all migrant students are processed for post-secondary opportunities.
Office of Migrant Education - Areas of Concern
The Office of Migrant Education (OME) has identified Common Areas of Concern that address most migratory children.
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Educational Continuity |
Due to their mobility, migrant students often face differences in curriculum, academic standards, homework policies and classroom routines, as well as inconsistent course placements.
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Instructional Time |
Family mobility and delays in enrollment procedures may impact attendance patterns and the amount of time migrant students spend engaged in learning.
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School Engagement |
Migrant students often face difficulties associated with adjusting to new school settings, making new friends and gaining social acceptance, issues which can be grouped according to (a) behavioral engagement, which relates to opportunities for participation in academic, social or extracurricular activities; (b) emotional engagement, which relates to positive and negative reactions to teachers, classmates, academic materials and school, in general; and (c) cognitive engagement, which relates to investment in learning and may be a response to expectations, relevance and cultural connections.
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English Language Development |
Many migrant students have a home language other than English and may face language barriers which impact content area learning. However, in this particular area, it is important to note that providing MEP-funded services to meet needs related to a student’s limited English proficiency is rarely appropriate, due to the high risk of supplanting activities more appropriately funded through State bilingual/ESL or, when appropriate, Title III or other Federal programs.
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Educational Support in the Home |
While many migrant parents value education very highly for their children, they may not have the educational resources or knowledge to provide the support expected by school staff.
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Health |
Migrant children face higher proportions of dental, nutritional, acute and chronic health problems than non-migrant children and are more likely to be uninsured and have difficulty accessing health care to address health problems which are interfering with a student’s ability to succeed in school.
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Access to Services |
As a result of language barriers or the mobile family’s newcomer status, migrant children and families often face difficulties accessing educational and educationally related services to which they are entitled. |
