La Conner Schools to join migrant program

The La Conner School District has recently experienced a six-fold increase in migrant student enrollment, jumping from 18 to 118.

The new number accounts for about 20 percent of the district’s current 575 enrollment, giving La Conner the highest percentage of migrant students in the county.

Because La Conner’s migrant student population has typically hovered in the lower numbers — fewer than 20 — the climbing numbers surprised school officials, prompting them to look into government programs to serve them.

La Conner Schools now plans to join the federal Migrant Education Program, which will provide additional funding to registered students with the goal of helping them succeed academically and ultimately graduate with a high school diploma or equivalent.

“It’s important to note that these are not new students to the district,” Andrew Wheeler, La Conner’s Special Programs director, said.

Rather, they are existing students who have been newly registered as migrant students through a vetting process with a state recruiter. Most, if not all, of La Conner’s migrant youth are Native American, unlike neighboring school districts, such as Mount Vernon, which serve many Hispanic farm working families.

Recruiter Natalie Palomarez, who works for the state’s Migrant Student Data, Recruitment and Support office, typically serves the Yakima area.

Last year, she was registering youth and happened to have a conversation with a Swinomish Indian Tribal Community member, who lived in the Yakima area, and suggested that Palomarez visit La Conner.

Many Swinomish families participate in “openings” or state-approved days throughout the year when fishing, crabbing and other products become available for tribal members to harvest. When youth accompany their families to places such as the San Juan Islands, Oak Harbor and Blaine, they miss school.

In order to qualify as a migrant student, the youth must be moving outside of school district boundaries.

Tracy James, the Swinomish education director, said some of the products that are harvested include crab, clams, halibut, sea urchin, sea cucumbers, salmon and berries.

“For some, it’s a real major income supplement to the family,” James said. She said that since 2002, the openings have been shortened from the 10 to 15 days to anywhere from two to 7 days in order to protect the wildlife.

Migrant youth in La Conner are currently able to obtain some basic federally-funded services without La Conner being a project school, such as the Portable Assistance Study Sequence Program to make up missed school credits, and they get free school lunches.

Once a youth is registered as migrant, they’re qualified for three years from the date their family migrated out of the school district, according Lionel Campos, director of the state’s migrant office.

“If a family makes a move on a yearly basis, the three-year time limit basically begins anew with every qualifying move,” he said.

However, only an in-person interview with a recruiter such as Palomarez can enroll a child into the Migrant Education Program.

The registration process consists of interviewing a family and asking a series of questions to determine whether they qualify. If they do, a business card-size “eligibility certification” card is filled out, qualifying the children for Migrant Education Program Services, including free school breakfast and lunch.

Palomarez contacted the Swinomish Education Department, which arranged for her to visit on the tribe’s “School Supply Day” last August. She and others from the tribe worked on spreading the word and putting up posters that describe the benefits of the program.

“You would not believe how many people showed up,” Tracy James, Swinomish education director said.

So many new students have been enrolled, that La Conner now has the highest percentage in the county of its students enrolled as migrant youth — though a few are not of school-age yet, they are still included in these figures. James said she was told another benefit of the program may be college scholarships when students apply in the future.

The guidelines for the Title 1 Migrant Education Program define a migrant student as “children from 0 to 21 who have moved on their own or with their parents within the past three years to seek or obtain temporary or seasonal work as a principle means of livelihood in activities related to: agriculture, packing or warehouse, forestry, dairy, poultry, commercial fishing, beef and shellfish.”

La Conner will join the ranks of most Skagit County schools when it becomes a project school. Of the six other school districts, only Concrete and Anacortes are not part of the Migrant Education Program.

La Conner Superintendent Peg Seeling said the school has not yet started the application process but plans to turn in its notice of intent around February. Any funds obtained would not be applied until the next school year. The application will be turned into the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

She said school officials are not sure yet what services or programs would be added to the school, but they are working with the state to determine the students’ needs. For example, La Conner will likely not need English as a Second Language services but could add a summer program if needed.

Becoming a project school will provide some funding to the district, she said, and will not go into the general fund. It must be used for specific migrant-focused purposes.

Wheeler said the amount of funding that the school could receive is not yet known. He estimates that each student enrolled will generate $350 to $400, totaling around $40,000 for student services.

He said with an annual school budget of $10 to $11 million, the migrant funds would represent “less than half of 1 percent.”

The school will have to reapply to the program yearly, and the funds distributed by the government each year will vary depending on how many other schools apply for the available funds, Seeling said.