The Texas Migrant Education Program (MEP) enrolls approximately 45,000 eligible migrant students out of a total Texas public school enrollment of approximately five million students. The state’s migrant program is the second largest in the country and is administered at the local level through local educational agencies (LEAs) and educational service centers (ESCs). Texas migrant students and their families migrate annually to 48 other states in the country, making Texas home to the largest interstate migrant student population in the United States. Texas also welcomes workers to the state to perform temporary and seasonal work in its agriculture and fishing industries. The largest concentration of Texas migrant families, approximately 56%, resides in the Rio Grande Valley. This region of the state, with approximately 30,000 migrant students, is larger than the number of migrant students in over 40 state MEPs. Large concentrations of migrant families also reside in San Felipe-Del Rio, Eagle Pass, El Paso, Hereford, and Houston. The purpose of the Migrant Education Program is to design and support programs that help migrant students overcome the challenges of mobility, cultural and language barriers, social isolation, and other difficulties associated with a migratory lifestyle. These efforts are aimed at helping migrant students succeed in school and successfully transition to postsecondary education or employment.

The Texas Migrant Education Program strives to empower educators working with migrant children to collaborate in designing programs which build upon student strengths, eliminate barriers, provide continuity of education, and produce levels of performance for migrant students that meet or exceed those of the general student population.  Parent involvement is viewed as an essential part of the educational process, and home-school-community partnerships provide the support necessary to improve student achievement.

Because issues of mobility, language and poverty affect the migratory student's opportunities to receive excellence and equity in the classroom, the Migrant Education Program strives to provide an educational experience which can help children reduce the educational disruptions and other problems that can result from repeated moves.  Texas migrant children deserve the same opportunities to reach the same challenging state performance standards that all children are expected to meet.

BISD partners with ESC Region XIII in a Shared Services Agreement to identify and serve the migrant students in our district.

• Statute (outside source)                                                     
• Migrant Education Policy Guidance
• Texas Migrant State Parent Advisory Council
• Resources

BASIC ELEMENTS:

WHO? A child who is, or whose parent, spouse, or guardian, is a migratory agricultural worker,or migratory fisher;                        

WHAT? has moved;

WHERE? from one school district to another; or, in a state that is comprised of a single school district, has moved from one school administrative area to another within such district;

WHY? in order to obtain, or accompany such parent, spouse, or guardian in order to obtain, temporary or seasonal employment in agricultural or fishing work that serves as a principal means of livelihood for the worker and his or her family;

WHEN? within the preceding 36 months