Identification and Recruitment and Re-interviews

The California Department of Education (CDE) is responsible for meeting all statutory and regulatory requirements of the Migrant Education Program (MEP). A fundamental responsibility of the state MEP office is to ensure that only those children who are eligible for the MEP are recruited, counted, and served.

• Identifying and recruiting eligible migrant children is the foundation of the MEP. Identification means determining the presence and location of migratory children within the state.
• Recruitment means describing the benefits of the MEP to the child and his or her family and obtaining the necessary information to document the child's eligibility and enroll the child in the program.

Re-interviews

Federal regulations require that all state MEPs validate their current-year eligibility determinations by conducting annual re-interviews. The state MEP office requires two main types of re-interviews to be conducted: statewide and local re-interviews. A re-interview involves re-interviewing families and checking each criterion that makes children eligible for the MEP.

Federal Guidance

Each state must have a local quality control plan that addresses the seven components of an effective system described in Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Section 200.89(d):

Responsibilities of an State educational agency (SEA) to establish and implement a system of quality controls for the proper identification and recruitment of eligible migratory children. At a minimum, this system of quality control must include the following components:

1. Training to ensure that recruiters and all other staff involved in determining eligibility and in conducting quality control procedures know the requirements for accurately determining and documenting child eligibility under the MEP;
2. Supervision and annual review and evaluation of the identification and recruitment practices of individual recruiters;
3. A formal process for resolving eligibility questions raised by recruiters and their supervisors and for ensuring that this information is communicated to all local operating agencies;
4. An examination by qualified individuals at the SEA or local operating agency level of each County Office of Education (COE) to verify that the written documentation is sufficient and that, based on the recorded data, the child is eligible for MEP services;
5. A process for the SEA to validate that eligibility determinations were properly made, including conducting prospective re-interviewing as described in paragraph (b)(2);
6. Documentation that supports the SEA’s implementation of this quality control system and of a record of actions taken to improve the system where periodic reviews and evaluations indicate a need to do so; and
7. A process for implementing corrective action if the SEA finds COEs that do not sufficiently document a child’s eligibility for the MEP or in response to internal state audit findings and recommendations or monitoring or audit findings of the Secretary.

Meetings

I&R Advisory Committee – Nine participants from regional or direct-funded districts (DFD), who offer perspective, guidance, and leadership to the California Department of Education in support of I&R initiatives, federal or state guidance changes, and statewide training:

Thank you to: Simi Pannu – Santa Clara COE – Region 1, Cristina Espinoza – Butte COE – Region 2, Brandon Sant’Agata – Fresno County Superintendent of Schools – Region 4, Veronica Pimentel – Kern County Superintendent of Schools – Region 5, Alejandro Espino – Tulare COE – Region 8, Guillermo Mondragon – Los Angeles COE – Region 10, Leonor Osornio – Pajaro Valley Unified School District – DFD 11, Efrain Magallanes – Monterey COE – Region 16, Susane Melton – San Luis Obispo COE – Region 18.    

Resources

Guidance for I&R Using the Federal Flexibility in Obtaining Interviewee Signatures on Certificates of Eligibility
Letter to the regional subgrantees describing when remote recruitment could be appropriate.

Remote Recruiting Protocol
Guidance document describing remote recruiting protocol and how to complete the interviewee signatures on the Certificate of Eligibility.

California MEP Help Center
Support by WestEd, this website houses resources, training documents, and guidance on California's I&R and re-interviews component.