One of the major changes to the Head Start Reauthorization Act in October 1998 was the addition of services to Seasonal Farmworkers, their families and children.The program is designed to serve families who are engaged in seasonal agricultural labor, and may or may not change their residence to other geographic locations. The Migrant Program serves farm workers who move with the seasons.
Services provided by the Migrant Head Start program are identical to those of regular Head Start, but Migrant grantees modify delivery to meet the specific needs of migrant farmworker families. However, the Migrant Head Start program has a unique emphasis on serving infants and toddlers as well as pre-school age children, so that they will not have to be cared for in the fields or left in the care of very young siblings while parents are working.
A total of 25 grantees and 41 delegate agencies provide services in 40 states and serve nearly 37,000 migrant children and 2,500 seasonal children each year, according to the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association.
