Migrant Children: Education and HHS Need to Improve the Exchange of Participant Information
Author: Fagnoni, Cynthia
Date Published: 1999
Children in migrant agricultural worker families often face significant developmental and educational obstacles, including poverty, limited English proficiency, rural and social isolation, and health risks associated with intermittent medical care and pesticide exposure. For migrant children, these obstacles are compounded by mobility as families move from site to site in search of work. In recognition of these needs, Congress created the Department of Education's Migrant Education Program (MEP) in 1965 and the Department of Health and Human Services' Migrant Head Start (MHS) program in 1969. Very little is known about the outcomes of these programs. This report examines the goal of the MEP and MHS programs, how they operate, who they serve, and what services they provide; the extent to which Education and HHS facilitate the coordination of MEP and MHS services within each of their programs and between the two programs; and how well Education and HHS determine whether MEP and MHS achieve their goals and objectives.
Date Published: 1999
Children in migrant agricultural worker families often face significant developmental and educational obstacles, including poverty, limited English proficiency, rural and social isolation, and health risks associated with intermittent medical care and pesticide exposure. For migrant children, these obstacles are compounded by mobility as families move from site to site in search of work. In recognition of these needs, Congress created the Department of Education's Migrant Education Program (MEP) in 1965 and the Department of Health and Human Services' Migrant Head Start (MHS) program in 1969. Very little is known about the outcomes of these programs. This report examines the goal of the MEP and MHS programs, how they operate, who they serve, and what services they provide; the extent to which Education and HHS facilitate the coordination of MEP and MHS services within each of their programs and between the two programs; and how well Education and HHS determine whether MEP and MHS achieve their goals and objectives.
