Immigrant or Migrant Students
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Bringing Immigrant Students into the Fold
As a high school teacher of English language learners (ELLs) at the Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning School, one of my school goals is to teach students to be civically-engaged leaders. Because the English language learners at Kurt Hahn are mostly new to the country and ninety percent speak no English, they need direction to do this. Though they often find comfort, a new home, and new language in my class, I want to continue to provide authentic learning opportunities and build ways for them to connect the world outside of our school, to American culture and to their own neighborhood communities.
The U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Justice (DOJ) offers this online English Learner (EL) Tool Kit Resource to support states, districts and schools in meeting their legal obligations to ELs and ensuring access to quality education. Included in the tool kit are tools and resources for identifying ELs, delivering high quality EL programs, evaluating the effectiveness of EL programs, preventing unnecessary segregation, providing qualified staff, ensuring access to school programs and activities (including disability-related services), exiting ELs from EL programs at the appropriate time, monitoring students’ progress, and supporting limited English proficient parents. The EL Tool Kit is a companion to the English Learner Guidance released jointly by ED and DOJ in January, 2015.
The Geneseo Migrant Center administers a variety of scholarships listed on this website that offer financial assistance to migrant students who want to further their education. The Geneseo Migrant Center has provided financial assistance to students across the country with a recent or ongoing history of movement to obtain work in agriculture since the inception of its first scholarship fund in 1974.
This website offers college scholarship information for migrant students. Featured scholarship programs include: CAMP grants/scholarships, Path to, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Geneseo, Supercollege, FAFSA and MALDEF.
This Department of Education website describes federal funds that support high quality education programs for migratory children and help ensure that migratory children who move among the states are not penalized in any manner by disparities among states in curriculum, graduation requirements, or state academic content and student academic achievement standards. These federal funds also ensure that migratory children not only are provided with appropriate education services (including supportive services) that address their special needs but also that such children receive full and appropriate opportunities to meet the same challenging state academic content and student academic achievement standards that all children are expected to meet. Federal funds are allocated by formula to SEAs, based on each state’s per pupil expenditure for education and counts of eligible migratory children, age 3 through 21, residing within the state.
The U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Justice (DOJ) today released joint guidance reminding states, school districts and schools of their obligations under federal law to ensure that English learner students have equal access to a high-quality education and the opportunity to achieve their full academic potential. "Four decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Lau v. Nichols that all students deserve equal access to a high-quality education regardless of their language background or how well they know English," said ED Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon. "Today's guidance not only reminds us of the court's ruling, but also provides useful information for schools as they work to ensure equity for students and families with limited English proficiency."
