The Texas Migrant Education Program (MEP) enrolls approximately 45,000 eligible migrant students out of a total Texas public school enrollment of approximately five million students. The state’s migrant program is the second largest in the country and is administered at the local level through local educational agencies (LEAs) and educational service centers (ESCs). Texas migrant students and their families migrate annually to 48 other states in the country, making Texas home to the largest interstate migrant student population in the United States. Texas also welcomes workers to the state to perform temporary and seasonal work in its agriculture and fishing industries. The largest concentration of Texas migrant families, approximately 56%, resides in the Rio Grande Valley. This region of the state, with approximately 30,000 migrant students, is larger than the number of migrant students in over 40 state MEPs. Large concentrations of migrant families also reside in San Felipe-Del Rio, Eagle Pass, El Paso, Hereford, and Houston. The purpose of the Migrant Education Program is to design and support programs that help migrant students overcome the challenges of mobility, cultural and language barriers, social isolation, and other difficulties associated with a migratory lifestyle. These efforts are aimed at helping migrant students succeed in school and successfully transition to postsecondary education or employment.

The Texas Migrant Education Program strives to empower educators working with migrant children to collaborate in designing programs which build upon student strengths, eliminate barriers, provide continuity of education, and produce levels of performance for migrant students that meet or exceed those of the general student population.  Parent involvement is viewed as an essential part of the educational process, and home-school-community partnerships provide the support necessary to improve student achievement.

Because issues of mobility, language and poverty affect the migratory student's opportunities to receive excellence and equity in the classroom, the Migrant Education Program strives to provide an educational experience which can help children reduce the educational disruptions and other problems that can result from repeated moves.  Texas migrant children deserve the same opportunities to reach the same challenging state performance standards that all children are expected to meet.

• Education of Migratory Children - U.S. Department of Education

• Texas Education Agency (TEA) Migrant Edcuation Policy Guidance - Providing guidance related to the Title I, Part C program in the areas of program implementation, service priority, identification and recruitment (ID&R), and student data collection.

• Education Services Center, Region 20 (ESC-20) - Provides various levels of support to local education agencies (LEA) based on their category of participation.

• Migrant Education Information Sheet - Provides answers to:

  1. What is the Migrant Education?

  2. Who is a migrant child?

  3. Do Migrant children have needs that are different from other children?

  4. What services are available for children of migrant workers?