Maximizing Child Counts: A Collaborative Approach

WestEd’s Migrant Education Services team provides technical assistance and support to the California Department of Education (CDE) to cultivate the highest quality identification and recruitment (I&R) practices across the state for the Migrant Education Program.

The goal of the MEP is to ensure that all migratory children and youth reach challenging academic standards and graduate with a high school diploma (or complete a High School Equivalency Diploma) that prepares them for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment.

About the Brief

This is the third of six publications in the Professional Learning Network (PLN) profiles series. This brief describes a collaborative effort to maximize child counts to ensure that as many eligible children and youths as possible are enrolled in the MEP before the end of each performance period.

Once an eligible migratory child or youth is recruited into the MEP, they begin receiving health and education services to meet their unique needs. From September 1 to August 31, all eligible students are counted. MEP child counts at the end of each performance period determine the funding for future years.

This work was accomplished by the Migrant Student Information Network (MSIN) team at WestEd in collaboration with the California Department of Education Migrant Education Office and MEP subgrantees.

Further Reading

Read other profiles in the PLN series:

• Identifying Students Closer to Their Qualifying Move Date by Utilizing an Interactive Enrollee Form
• Layered Training to Harness the Power of the Subsequent Qualifying Move
• Using the Professional Learning Network to Develop Leading Practices for Identification and Recruitment in California
• Using Data to Revise a Change in Practice
• Continuous Improvement Increases Child Counts and Reshapes the Meaning of Teamwork