Vermont migrant education program

Jump to navigation. The Vermont Migrant Education Program provides educational support services to eligible children and youth who relocate independently or with their families in order to obtain seasonal or temporary employment in agriculture. All staff are bilingual and the program provides a bridge connecting farm workers to various educational, community and health services.

Eligible farm workers or children of farm workers may receive educational resources. The goal of the Vermont Migrant Education Program VMEP is to ensure that all migratory students reach challenging academic standards and obtain life skills that prepares them for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment. The Migrant Education Program VMEP is a federally funded program that works to connect eligible migratory farmworkers and their families to educational resources.

In order to support migratory students, VMEP collaborates closely with supervisory unions and local schools, teachers, parents, community service agencies, the UVM Extension network and, of course, the agricultural community.

Because of their transience and isolation, it is easy for these students to fall out of step academically and socially. VMEP serves over students annually with participants mainly coming from rural communities with high concentrations of dairy farms.

Eligible work also includes logging, vegetable farming, fruit orchards, hemp and more. Migratory students eligible for VMEP in Vermont and across the country can be of any race, ethnicity, nationality or speak any language. In the year , Edward R. Part of what the documentary shed light on was the challenge of providing academic continuity for families and individuals that move from farm to farm, community to community following agricultural crops and seasonal harvests.

Following its airing, there was a public outcry and a call for action to improve the educational, working, and living conditions of farmworkers and their families. The Department of Education quickly recognized that migratory students, those who move frequently during the school year doing agricultural work, were still falling behind their peers. Running strong nationwide for over 50 years, VMEP serves hundreds of thousands of migratory students annually assisting them to connect with educational and additional resources available in their communities.

At that time, they were responsible for the identifying and recruiting eligible students. Since , in addition to recruitment, UVM Extension has also been responsible for facilitating the educational services available to VMEP students across the state of Vermont. By working collaboratively with farmworkers, families, farmers, schools and community programs, VMEP ensures that eligible students can access educational opportunities and community resources.

Families and farmworkers often face barriers when it comes to accessing education and additional essential services. VMEP staff works hard to eliminate barriers and bridge the gap between these resources and students. In order for there to be a migratory child, there must be a migratory worker. Migratory means a worker who has moved at least once within the last 36 months across school district lines to engage in seasonal or temporary agricultural work.

A child who moves with a migratory worker across school district lines qualifies for VMEP. Examples of qualifying agricultural work may include dairy, livestock, fruit, vegetable, hemp and crop work, food processing, maple sugaring, logging, planting trees, and fishing. Dairy work can be temporary less than 12 months. Laurel and Bob and their three school-aged children move from Pownal, Vermont to Fairfax, VT in July for Bob to take a job as a farmhand on a large dairy.

They rent an apartment nearby. They hope to stay long-term at the farm, but after six months, Bob learns of another dairy job in Derby Center that provides housing. The family moves to Derby Center and Bob begins working at the new dairy.

Because the family stayed for less than 12 months at the farm in Fairfax, the children qualify for VMEP services upon their arrival in Derby and can be enrolled in the program for three years. If the family leaves Derby for another school district within those three years, the children will continue to be enrolled in VMEP in the new district. What can VMEP do for this family? They work with the family and the school to help the children with schoolwork they missed during their moves.

VMEP helps the family advocate for one child to be tested for a learning disability who has demonstrated this need, but because they have moved so frequently in the last year, no school has completed the necessary testing. After testing, the child receives key services that will help her successfully complete school. A migratory worker under 22 years old can also be a student. This work lasts for a little over two months.

The hemp farmer provides temporary housing. Juan qualifies for the Migrant Education Program because he moved from one school district to another and engaged in seasonal hemp work. After the hemp harvest finishes, he finds another job milking cows at a farm in Vergennes, a different school district.

Juan moves to milk cows and continues his enrollment in VMEP. Workers can refer others they think may qualify. Jump to navigation. The Vermont Migrant Education Program provides educational support services to eligible children of families that relocate in order to obtain seasonal or temporary employment in agriculture and to eligible out-of-school youth that has moved to obtain seasonal or temporary agricultural employment.

These free services can include books, tutoring, homework support, English language learning, summer programs, and referrals to local resources. In Vermont, migrant families who qualify for the Migrant Education Program MEP under federal guidelines work in such agricultural-related fields as: dairy farming, fruit orchards, vegetable fields, food processing plants, nurseries, and logging. Currently running strong across our entire nation, Migrant Education Programs serve hundreds of thousands of migrant students each year.

Because of their transience and isolation, it is easy for these students to fall out of step academically and socially. The primary goal of the Migrant Education Program is to locate all migrant children and families in the country and provide supplemental educational services to reach the program goals of academic proficiency and high school graduation.

Vermont's needs assessment and plan were updated in The plan specifies measurable program goals and outcomes. In order to inform the Comprehensive Needs Assessment, the State must conduct an evaluation of program effectiveness at least once every three years.