What is the Migrant Education Program?
Migrant Education is a national program that provides supplemental educational and support services to eligible migrant children each year. These services help children of migrant workers overcome the disadvantages they face, one of which is a disruption to their education due to mobility.

Who are Migrant Workers?
Migrant workers seek temporary or seasonal work in agriculture, fishing, or related industries, including food processing.  They follow the growing seasons across the country and are largely responsible for the cultivation and harvest of fruits, vegetables, and many other food products.  Many migrant workers have an average income below the national poverty line.  While many migrant families consider California to be their home base, others come from other states and countries.

Migrant children may come from large families with inadequate living space and low incomes. Poor nutrition, housing, and sanitary conditions may cause a high incidence of health problems. Migrant children may have limited English skills and/or little experience with success at school. These problems, combined with irregular school attendance, often lead to overall frustration and low academic performance.  This causes many migrant children to drop out of school in their teens.

Through the Migrant Education Program, these children can be provided with supplemental educational and support services to help overcome their difficulties.  Migrant children can close the achievement gap in education and develop skills and options for the future.  In addition, the program provides opportunities for them to develop self-confidence and self-esteem.

What makes a child eligible?
To qualify for the Migrant Education Program, a migrant child must have moved within the past three years across state or school district boundaries with a migrant parent, guardian, or self, to enable the child, the child’s guardian, or a member of the child’s immediate family to obtain temporary or seasonal employment in an agricultural, fishing, or food processing activity.  The child may be in any grade between preschool and the 12th grade and must not be older than twenty-two and not a high school graduate.