Institutions of higher education or regional education laboratories to provide services more effectively to children moving between States. A priority for these grants would be given to States with allocations of under $1 million. Fourth. the bill requires States to provide advocacy and outreach for migrant children and their families. to provide strong parental Involvement. Including programs which promote adult literacy and train parents to support the educational growth of their children. and to provide the opportunity for migrant children to develop and achieve high standards In school. Fifth. the bill would require the Secretary of Education to work with States to help assure the timely transfer of student health and education records and to report to the Congress on his efforts. Along with this provision. the bill would cease to provide Federal funding for the migrant student record transfer system [MSRTS] by 1995. The migrant student record transfer system is estimated to cost the Federal Government $25 million. with $6 million provided through a direct Federal contract with a State educational agency and the remaining amount spent by individual States from their Federal allocations. The State costs primarily support data entry clerks and regional computer terminals. In spite of the relatively high cost. this system is not working well to transfer student records. Mast States which participate In the migrant program choose to transfer student records via fax or other means. Most States which do participate In the program do not appear to use MSRTS for the placement of children when they arrive in school. Rather. it Is used for verification of student placements already made. In addition. States which find MSRTS useful argue not for its ability to transfer records to school sites. but for its ability to assist in data collection on migrant students. With Increasing fiscal constraints on Federal education programs. we must make sure Federal funds support direct services to children whenever possible. Mr. Speaker. as the chief sponsor of legislation to create the Migrant Education Program In 1966. Mr. GOODLING and I offer these changes In the hopes that we will have provided the program a clearer mission to take it into the next century. We look forward to reactions to these suggestions from the migrant community as well as others. I know we all believe the needs of migrant students are too great for us not to find ways to better serve these children.
Keywords matched
Migrant migrant