ID&R Manual
Kansas State Department of Education
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Part A: Child Eligibility
Part B: Identification & Recruitment (ID&R)
Part C: The Certificate of Eligibility (COE)
Preface
The goal of Title I, Part C (Education of Migratory Children) of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is to support high-quality and comprehensive educational programs for migrant children to help reduce the educational disruptions and other problems that result from repeated moves. In addition, Title I, Part C attempts to ensure that migrant children who move between states are not put at a disadvantage because of disparities in curriculum, graduation requirements, and content and student academic achievement standards.
Migrant students have many risk factors in common with other disadvantaged students (e.g., poverty, poor health, learning disabilities), but they also face additional challenges unique to their situations (e.g., disruption of education, poor record-keeping between schools, cultural and language difficulties and social isolation). Because migrant students usually account for only a small percentage of the total student population, many schools and districts find it difficult to dedicate the level of resources that may be necessary to ensure the best educational experience possible for their migrant students.
Federal Title I, Part C provides SEAs with funding through a State formula grant based on each State’s per-pupil expenditure and counts of migrant children between 3 and 21 years old.
A child is eligible for the MEP if:
- the child is younger than 22 (and has not graduated from high school or does not hold a high school equivalency certificate); AND
- the child is a migrant agricultural worker OR has a parent, spouse, or guardian who is a migrant agricultural worker or a migrant fisher; AND
- the child has moved within the preceding 36 months in order to obtain (or seek) or to accompany (or join) a parent, spouse, or guardian to obtain, temporary or seasonal employment in qualifying agricultural or fishing work; AND
- such employment is a principal means of livelihood; AND
- the child has moved from one school district to another.
State migrant education programs are required to:
- ensure that the special educational needs of migrant children are identified and addressed;
- provide migrant students with the opportunity to meet the same challenging state academic content standards that all children are expected to meet;
- promote interstate and intrastate coordination of services for migrant children, including providing for educational continuity through the timely transfer of pertinent school records; and
- encourage family literacy services for migrant students and their families.
To the extent feasible, all migrant education programs and projects also are required to provide for advocacy and outreach for migratory children and their families on such topics as education, health, nutrition, and social services. They must also provide professional development programs for teachers and other program personnel; family literacy programs; the integration of information technology into MEP activities; and programs to facilitate the transition of secondary school students to postsecondary education or employment.
Introduction
Children are eligible to receive Kansas Migrant Education Program (MEP) services if they meet the definition of “migratory child” and if the basis for their eligibility is properly recorded on the Kansas Certificate of Eligibility (COE). Determining whether a child meets this definition is often difficult and depends upon a recruiter’s assessment of information presented by a parent or other family member, guardian, or other individual responsible for the child.
Finding and enrolling eligible migrant children is a cornerstone of the Kansas MEP and its importance can not be overemphasized. Identification and Recruitment are critical activities because:
- The children who are most in need of program services are often those who are the most difficult to find.
- Many migrant children would not fully benefit from school, and in some cases would not attend school at all, if they were not identified and recruited into the MEP. This is particularly true of the most mobile migrant children who may be more difficult to identify than those who have settled in a community.
- Children cannot receive MEP services without a record of eligibility.
Generally, the Kansas Office of Migrant Education is responsible for the proper and timely identification and recruitment of all eligible migrant children in the State, including securing pertinent information to document the basis of a child’s eligibility. The majority of migrant children would not fully benefit from the educational services to which they are entitled and, in some cases, would not attend school at all if they were not identified and recruited into the MEP.
What is meant by the terms “identification” and “recruitment” or “ID&R”? Identification means determining the location and presence of migrant children. Recruitment means making contact with migrant families, explaining the MEP, securing the necessary information to make a determination that the child is eligible for the MEP based on the information provided, and recording the basis of the child’s eligibility on a COE.
Specifically, recruiters obtain the information by interviewing the person responsible for the child, or the child, in cases where the child moves on his or her own. A recruiter’s primary responsibilities are:
- to obtain information provided by parents, guardians, and others regarding the child’s eligibility for the MEP;
- to make determinations of eligibility; and
- to accurately and clearly record information that establishes a child is eligible for the MEP on the COE.
Because the Kansas Office of Migrant Education is responsible for all determinations of MEP eligibility, the information that the recruiter records on the COE should be specific enough to be understood by a knowledgeable independent reviewer. In every case, the recruiter (not the individual interviewed) determines the child’s eligibility on the basis of the policies outlined in this manual. Upon successful recruitment of a migrant family, eligible children may be enrolled in the Kansas MEP.
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