migrant and homeless education: teaming up to serve our kids

Migrant and Homeless Education:

Teaming Up to Serve Our

Kids

NAEHCY 2007 Annual ConferencePortland, OR

National Center for Homeless Education www.serve.org/nche

Session Outline

• What makes a student a migrant?• What is the migrant lifestyle like?• How does education fit into the migrant lifestyle?• What are some typical migrancy streams?• What are typical migrant housing conditions?• What commonalities are there in the migrant and

homeless lifestyles?• Determining eligibility of migrant students for

McKinney-Vento services



Session Outline (cont)

• Local-level collaboration between migrant and homeless education programs

• 10-minute break• Panel on undocumented students• Q and A or group activity



What makes a student a “migrant”?

• The child himself/herself or the child’s parent or spouse is a migratory agricultural worker, migratory dairy worker, or migratory fisher

• The child has made a move within the last 36 months to seek temporary or seasonal employment in agricultural or fishing work



What makes a student a “migrant”? (cont)

• The move in search of employment– was from one school district to another– in a state comprised of a single school district,

was from one administrative district to another– in a school district of more than 15,000

square miles, was 20 miles or more to a temporary residence to engage in a fishing activity



What is the migrant lifestyle like?

• The migrant culture is based more on employment patterns and lifestyle than it is on ethnicity and/or race

• The migrant lifestyle is tentative by nature; it depends on many things that are out of the family’s control

• The migrant lifestyle is highly mobile



What is the migrant lifestyle like? (cont)

• The majority of migrant families live in poverty

• In migrant families, individual needs and desires often become secondary to the survival of the family

• Children may be asked to work to help provide for the family



How does education fit into the migrant lifestyle?

• In some of the families’ native countries, education is not mandatory; the U.S. education system may be very different for them

• Migrant parents value education as a ticket to their children’s futures

• However…



How does education fit into the migrant lifestyle? (cont)

• Education can be viewed as a “luxury” and is secondary to survival

• Poor nutrition and lack of medical care associated with the migrant lifestyle mean that migrant children often arrive to school too sick or too tired to learn

• Migrant parents often have low levels of education and may be intimidated; educators are viewed as “the experts”

• View of “my job is to provide; the school’s job is to educate”



Typical Migrancy Streams

Source: www.palmbeachpost.com



Migrant Living Arrangements

• Many live in employer-owned migrant camps• Many migrant camps avoid being subject to

housing codes and standards• Migrant families are often at the mercy of their

employer in terms of the cost of their housing and other issues, as well

• Many migrant living arrangements would be considered substandard

• Families that do not live in migrant camps are left to find housing on meager incomes



Migrant Living Arrangements



Migrant Living Arrangements (cont)



Similarities Between Migrant and Homeless Families

• What similarities do you see between the migrant lifestyle and the homeless lifestyle?



Determining Eligibility of Migrant Students

• Not all migrant students are automatically considered homeless

• Migrant students are considered homeless inasmuch as their living arrangements meet the McKinney-Vento definition of homeless



Determining Eligibility: “The Nature of the Beast”

• Determining eligibility is a case-by-case determination made by examining the living arrangement of each individual student

• Some instances will be clear-cut; others will require further investigation and then a judgment call

• Determinations of eligibility must be made expeditiously so that immediate enrollment and the prompt provision of services can occur.



The McKinney-Vento Definition of Homeless

• Children and youth who lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence are considered homeless. This includes children and youth who are:

– Living in emergency or transitional housing;

– Sharing housing due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or other similar reason;

– Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate housing;

– Awaiting foster care placement;



The McKinney-Vento Definition of Homeless (cont)

– Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, or bus or train stations;

– Abandoned in hospitals;

– Children and youth who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, regular sleeping accommodations; or

– Migratory children who qualify as homeless because they are living in the circumstances described above.



Is This Migrant Student Homeless?

• Steps to determining eligibility:– Get the facts about the student’s living arrangement– Does the student’s living arrangement fit into one of

the examples of homelessness listed in the law?– If not, does the student live in another type of living

arrangement that does not meet the law’s fixed, regular, andadequate standard?

– Check out the Determining Eligibility brief handout

Migrant and Homeless Education:

Teaming Up to Serve Our Kids

Local-level CollaborationPolk County, Florida

Dee Dee Wright,Homeless Grant Specialist

Background:

Polk County School Board (PCSB):95,000 students (K-12)Nearly 160 school campusesGeographically 3rd largest in state

PCSB Migrant Program:Began in 1965Last year identified 2,519 migrant students

PCSB Homeless Education Program:Began in 1991Last year identified 1,649 homeless students

Ways to collaborate:

Homeless LiaisonContact local Migrant program

Participate on the Migrant Planning Committee (committee is mandated)

Present at Migrant Advocate/Home Liaison meetings

Present at Migrant Parent meetings; Migrant Family Fairs

Attend local Hispanic Latino Coalition

Ways to collaborate:

Migrant representative:Contact local homeless liaison

Participate on Homeless Education Task Force/Committee ~ not at all districts

Present at and attend local Homeless Coalition meetings

Additional ideas:

Homeless Education program reviews the Migrant Certificate of Enrollments for possible identificationDomicile form is used to identify students in both programs (free lunch eligibility form, too).Smaller districts have coordinators supervising all federal programs including migrant & homelessHave school based contacts involved in both programs

Benefits offered:

Homeless program:Immediate enrollment without documentation normally required for enrollment

Right to stay in school of origin

Ability to purchase school uniforms

Migrant program: Coordination of after-school activities and summer programs to access transportation

Ability to transport families

More staff

Contact Information

Dee Dee Wright, Homeless Liaison

Polk County School Board

(863) 534-0801

[email protected]

Christina Dukes, Program Specialist

National Center for Homeless Education

(336) 574-8729

[email protected]

Additional Resources

NCHE’s migrant education resource page: http://www.serve.org/nche/ibt/sc_migrant.phpESCORT: www.escort.orgU.S. Department of Education, Office of Migrant Education: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oese/ome/index.htmlNational Association of State Directors of Migrant Education (NASDME): http://www.nasdme.org/



Luisa

Luisa and her family were living in a grower-owned trailer in the grower’s migrant labor camp. Production has been low and so Luisa’s parents haven’t been making much money lately. They can no longer pay the rent that the grower is charging, so they’re evicted. They move into another trailer in the migrant labor camp with some fellow migrant laborers.



Luisa (cont)

• Is Luisa’s family homeless, according to McKinney-Vento?

• If Luisa’s family was never evicted and still lived in the trailer…– Would you consider Luisa’s family homeless?

Why or why not?– What questions would you ask to determine if

the living arrangement would meet the McKinney-Vento definitionof homeless?



Luisa (cont)

• Production picks back up and Luisa’s family and the other migrant laborers they were living with decided to pool their money to move out of the labor camps and rent a better place a couple of miles down the road. This was a planned arrangement that is intended to be long-term. Are these families homeless? Why or why not?



Jean

Jean’s family lives in grower-owned housing behind the tomato packing plan where his parents work. The house isn’t glamorous, but it is at least functional. It is small and has bare concrete floors, but at least it has running water and electricity. Jean shares a room with his little brother, his twin sisters share another room, and his parents have the 3rd bedroom.



Jean (cont)

• Is Jean’s family homeless?• What if the home were only a one-

bedroom home and Jean and his three siblings slept in sleeping bags on the floor of the common room?

• What if there were no running water and Jean’s family had to share a common bathing facility located in the center of the housing camp?

migrant and homeless education: teaming up to serve our kids

Documents

migrant lifestyle

migrant children

migrant culture

cont education

education fit

homeless education programs

education system

majority of migrant