Located at the center of the San Joaquin Valley, Fresno Unified School District serves approximately 80,000 students, of which 12,000 are eligible to recieve Migrant Education supplemental services.

Map to Fresno Unified School District

Program Descriptions

Regular School Year Objectives

Fresno Unified's Migrant Education Program serves students ages 3 through 21. This means that we have a pre-school, elementary, middle school, high school, and out of school youth programs. Our pre-school program is a First Teacher Program and is staffed by 3 classified personnel. Each teacher has a caseload of students who they visit one hour on a weekly basis providing parents and their children with one-on-one instruction at the childs home. At present, our elementary school program consists of a four week intersession for elemetary students at year round schools. Extended day instruction is provided at schools where a teacher is available. Services to Middle School students is provided at four (4) of our eight (8) Middle Schools. A full time teacher provides an elective class to eligible Migrant students. Instruction in Mathematics and English language arts is provided daily as well as leadership, career exploration and field experiences. At High School five (5) full time teachers provide instruction through Portable Assisted Study Sequence (PASS) and California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) review classes after school and on Saturday. Students at the High School level are also provided advising, work-study opportunities, and career counseling. Finally, students who have not graduated from high school or are ages 18 through 21, are provided opportunites to complete graduation requirements through PASS and enrollment in adult school. These students are also provided with resources that enable them to seek employment.

Summer School Objectives

Migrant students at Fresno Unified are given the opportunity to attend a four (4) week summer school program. In the past, students have attended summer school at the elementary and middle school levels. These summer school programs have been organized for Migrant students exclusively and have provided instruction in English language arts and mathematics. Students have also participated in enrichment activities such as educational field trips. High School students have participated in summer school through the Portable Assisted Study Sequence (PASS). Migrant students have also been afforded an opportunity to participate in the Fresno County Office of Education's Migrant Scholars Program at California State University as well as Camp SciCon and the Middle School Leadership Program at Green Meadows at Yosemite National Forest. More than 2,000 Migrant students have participated in Migrant summer schools each summer.

I & R Process

Identification & Recruitment

Identfication and recruitment occurs 365 days a year. Fresno Unified has five (5) Migrant Education Liaisons (MEL) and one (1) Eligibility Clerk assigned to this purpose. The languages spoken by our MELs are English, Spanish, and Hmong. They are constantly on the telephone and in the community identifying, recruiting and referring Migrant families to appropriate schools, programs, and resources. Our MELs are indispensible to the successful implementation of Fresno Unified's Migrant Education Program.

Assessment Tools

In Fresno Unified the Research, Evaluation, and Assessment Department administers all required state and district tests. They maintain the data for the entire district and provide data to departments and schools as they need and request it. In addition, the Fresno Unified Migrant Department maintains all required Migrant data. The department database has been a great help in providing data needed to run the program. We also house the C.O.E.'s for the Migrant Program and use the state M.S.I.N. system on a daily basis to verify Migrant information.

Click Below to View Assessment Scores for Fresno Unified School District Migrant Education Students:

2006 CST Assessment Scores
2006 CAHSEE English Assessment Scores
2006 CAHSEE Mathematics Assessment Scores
2006 CELDT Assessment Scores

Parent Meeting & Program Involvement

Parents of students enrolled in the Migrant Education Program participate in the planning, operation, and evaluation of programs for Migrant Education students. The Fresno Unified School District Migrant Parent Advisory Council meets at least six (6) times per year and is composed of parent representatives from each of its elementary, middle, and high schools. Parents are encouraged to be actively involved in their childrens education by providing a quiet place for their children to complete their homework, to ensure that they attend school regularly, and to be involved in school activities. The Fresno Unified Migrant Education Program has also initiated a Parent Empowerment Program. This six (6) hour course was developed by one of our Migrant Education teachers and has been implemented by three (3) parent facilitators. The course is composed of four (4) modules that cover the topics of the school system, laws related to minors, family dynamics and family goals, and study skills. One of the highlights of the training is a family camp that where parents and their children participate in activities that strengthen the family bond and create a united effort to obtain a quality education.

PARENT ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETINGS

2007-2008 CALENDAR

General PAC Meetings: “E” Street 6:30 p.m.	Topic
September 20 Room 100 Regional PAC Conference September 22, 2007	Nomination of Officers 2007-2009
October 18 Room 100 Regional Parent Retreat Oct. 26-28, 2007	PAC Training and Election
November 15 Room 116	Training on election procedures Election of Vice-President, Regional Parent Representative and Alternate
December 13 Special Meeting – Room 100	Region IV Report Reading is Fundamental (RIF) distribution
February 21 Room 116	Needs Assessment/Input for the Service Agreement and Budget for 2008-2009
April 11 – 13	PAC State Conference Los Angeles
April 17 Room 116 Parent/student’s leadership Camp – TBA	Migrant Performance Data: Service Agreement, Budget 2008-2009
May 15 Room 116 Last Meeting of the School Year	Summer Migrant Services Budget Revision

Health Support Services & Health Clinics

To sum up our program; Migrant Health is a component of the Region IV Migrant Education Program. Fresno Unified has the largest number of Migrant students in Region IV. We are staffed by one Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (Doris Silvia), one full-time Health Assistant (Elia Hernandez) and one part-time Health Assistant (Mary Martin). The primary purpose is to identify and remediate any health conditions that may interfere with a child's ability to learn or to thrive. This is accomplished through weekly health clinics where students are given a complete head-to-toe physical examination. Blood tests for anemia and diabetes; urine tests for infection; routine administration of immunizations and tuberculin tests are also available. Enrollment into the Gateway/Medi-cal/Healthy Families insurance system as well as the Healthy Kids Insurance programs is also a component of our program. Collaboration with pediatric resident physicians from UCSF for our adolescent population is an important part of our program. Any health, vision, dental issue that needs to be addressed is referred and followed up utilizing a variety of funding sources.Last academic year we issued 400 plus referrals and did case management in cooperation with the school site nurse and other community agencies. Our program is comprehensive in scope and family oriented. We address any of the concerns the parent has regarding the social, physical or emotional health of the family unit. We see ourselves as advocates for the family as we endeavor to connect them with agencys that can assist them in their journey toward wholeness.

Questions? Call (559) 457-3819

Professional Development

Professional development is critical to providing quality supplemental instruction for our students. In addition to district sponsored staff development, Migrant staff participate in State and Regional Identification and Recruitment trainings, the Migrant Education Early Start (MEES) conference, Parent Partners training, and Curriculum Development workshops.

Staff Comments

Elodia Cortes:

My name is Elodia Cortes; I work as a Migrant Education Liaison for the Fresno Unified School District. My duties are:

• transport parents to the parent advisory meetings,
• translate and interpret for the families,
• make referrals to community agencies,
• attend regional training meetings to receive updated information about migrant regulations, and
• recruit migrant families.

I have been working for the migrant education program for five years and there have been many changes. In these many years, I've assisted the families, made referrals to the community agencies and transported them, as well as acted as an advocate for the families.

As a former migrant student who came from Oaxaca Mexico, enrolled in high school, I used to follow the seasonal crops from state to state with my parents and siblings, I encountered the migrant education and it made a positive change in my life. In 1990, my family and I received a wonderful assistance from the migrant liaison and the school counselor. I received academic assistance, health services, counseling and career guidance. As a result of the support I received from the program, I worked through out my high school years, graduated from high school, attended college and graduated, and have since graduated with a Masters of Science Degree in counseling in December of 2006.

It's great for the program when administrators create more services for migrant students since there is always a great need for the students to help them in numberous ways along with their education in general.

Warren Vang:

I provide workshops to certain schools in FUSD. There are many students in Migrant Education program in our district.

My duties include providing workshops to migrant parents, teaching them how to help their children at home, how to get involve in their children's school, to set standards at home for time to do homework, read and to watch TV. I talk to school administrators to find out what kind services the schools provides for student who fall behind on certain subjects. I pass this information on to parents so they can be aware of the situation and help children. I teach parents the requirement for graduating high school and preparing for their kids to go to college.

Additional Staff

Albert Rocha
Migrant Middle School Resource Teacher
253-6470

Norma Ann Sanchez
Migrant Middle School Resource Teacher
457-3210

Susan Schmale
Migrant Middle School Resource Teacher
457-3420

Jessie Torrez
Migrant Middle School Resource Teacher
253-6510

Guillermina Velazquez
Migrant Elementary School Resource Teacher
253-6430

Guadalupe Andrade
Migrant Teacher/Non-Target Resource
457-3766

Irma Castaneda
Preschool Parent Facilitator
457-3768

Kazoua Her
Preschool Parent Facilitator
457-3984