Proposed rules call for big changes in migrant education program

But some school officials are concerned that some children now served by the program might be shut out.

The program, established in 1965, provides $386 million this year for educational and support services for children whose parents are migrant farmworkers.

The program helps ensure that when these students move from state to the state they are not penalized by disparities in curricula, graduation requirements, or state standards.

States claim their share of funds by reporting the number of migratory children, age 3 through 21, their school districts serve.

Under proposed regulations published in the Federal Register May 4, some jobs would no longer count as migrant farm work, including jobs related to agricultural and fishing “activities” -- such as trucking service that transport livestock or fish to a processing plant -- as opposed to seasonal agricultural and fishing “work.”

To be eligible for funds, students must be members of a still-migrating farm worker family who has moved within the past three years. The rules also would require all districts to use a standard “national certificate of eligibility” to document the eligibility of a migratory child.

If the proposed rules take effect, school districts in California, Florida, and Texas, which serve most of the nation’s migrant children, would be affected the most.

“To redefine the criteria for migrant student status by narrowing the definition of the type of work employment or mobility of the parents could prevent thousands of children from accessing educational services that up until now they have been entitled to,” said Alberto Carvalho, associate superintendent of Miami Dade County Public Schools.

“Migratory children are some of the most academically neediest children in our nation,” Carvalho said. “To find a draconian solution for a very localized problem is an approach we do not favor. We fear the consequences of it.” 

Too often, officials said, money has gone to children of families who have settled down. “A problem was identified, and the states and [we] have moved very aggressively to face up to it,” Alex Goniprow, a supervisory specialist in the federal Office of Migrant Education, told McClatchy Newspapers.

“Seeking 100 percent accuracy in determining eligibility for Migrant Education services may be a desirable goal, but may be operationally unrealistic given the nature of migrant workers and their families and the limited federal resources currently available to support these needed services,” said Reggie Felton, NSBA’s director of federal relations.