Some of the 700-plus students’ needs include lack of affordable
health care
Morgan Hill – In California, there are hundreds of thousands of students who move around during their school year, and in Morgan Hill, those students – children from migrant families – are served by the Migrant Education Program.
“The purpose of the Migrant Education Program is to ensure that migrant children fully benefit from the same free public education provided to other children,” said Ricardo Amador, coordinator of English language development for the Morgan Hill Unified School District.
Of the district’s more than 8,000 students, 702 of them are migrant students, according to information prepared by district staff. The district’s program, however, is now serving a total of 916 migrant students, which includes those students in district schools, as well two students at St. Catherine School, 29 adult students and 138 students in the preschool portion of the program.
To qualify for the program, a student must be between the ages of 3 and 22. A student who has already graduated from high school cannot be a part of the program, and the student must have moved from one school district to another.
The student’s parents or guardians must be migrant workers in dairy, fishing or agricultural jobs. The family also must have moved to find temporary or seasonal employment within the past three years.
Some of the services the program provides include advocacy and outreach, dental and vision screenings, free school meals, summer school programs with free transportation, parent advisory council, after school tutorials and more.
According to information provided by district staff, there are approximately 333,000 migrant students in the state, and 25 percent of them live in the Central Coast, while 43 percent of them live in the Central Valley. Seventy percent of migrant students are in grades K-12, and 98 percent of them are Hispanic, the majority of them having limited English skills.
Four staff members, including Amador, work within the program, and there are three parent advisory committee officers.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at
md****@*************es.com.
