Migrant Education

Overview
The children of farmworkers share many of the same challenges faced by Latino children in general in our nation’s education system. They are among the most economically disadvantaged student groups, are likely to be identified as English-language-learners, and are less likely than their Black or White peers to attend pre-school before Kindergarten. In addition, their family’s reliance on temporary or seasonal agricultural work can exacerbate these educational challenges. For example, migrant students face many interruptions throughout their school careers due to the mobile nature of their families. Moreover, agricultural work poses health hazards that affect these children’s ability to arrive at school ready to learn. As a result, migrant students lag behind their peers in academic achievement and have very low high school completion rates. In fact, the high school dropout rate for migrant students has been estimated to range between 45% and 65%. Migrant students often require programs designed to meet their unique needs in order to achieve academic success.


NCLR Position
NCLR strongly believes that high-quality programs can effectively address the educational challenges faced by migrant students. To this end, NCLR advocates for adequate funding for migrant education programs from birth through post-secondary education. In addition, NCLR works to ensure that the unique needs of migrant students are addressed by policymakers at the federal level.

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