[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 103 (Friday, May 28, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30047-30050]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-12795]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families
Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers Study
AGENCY: Office of Head Start.
ACTION: Notice of Public Comment.
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SUMMARY: The following Notice of Public Comment is in response to
Section 649(f) Sub-Section (3) of the 2007 Head Start School Readiness
Act (the Act) requiring the Secretary to publish in the Federal
Register a plan of how the Secretary will carry out
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section 649 Sub-Section (f) Sub-Paragraph (1) and shall provide a
period for public comment.
DATES: To ensure consideration, written comments must be submitted on
or before 60 days after this notice is published.
To Comment on This Document, or for Further Information Contact:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to the Improving Head Start for
School Readiness Act of 2007, Public Law 110-134, Section 649 [42
U.S.C. 9801]--Sub-Section 649(h)(1)(A-B), notice is hereby given of a
plan to conduct a set of activities designed to focus on the Migrant
and Seasonal Farmworker Head Start-eligible population. As required by
the Act, the Secretary shall work in collaboration with providers of
Migrant and Seasonal Head Start programs, the Secretary of Agriculture,
the Secretary of Labor, the Bureau of Migrant Health, and the Secretary
of Education to undertake the activities addressed in this notice. The
notice is required to present: (1) A plan to ``collect, report, and
share data, within a coordinated system, on children of migrant and
seasonal farmworkers and their families, including health records and
educational documents of such children, in order to adequately account
for the number of children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers who are
eligible for Head Start services and determine how many of such
children receive the services;'' (2) a plan to ``identify barriers that
prevent children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers who are eligible
for Head Start services from accessing Head Start services;'' and (3)
``develop a plan for eliminating such barriers, including certain
requirements relating to tracking, health records, and educational
documents, and increasing enrollment.''
Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) Plans
(1) Collaboration across Federal agencies in order to adequately
account for the number of children of migrant and seasonal farmworkers
who are eligible for Head Start services and determine how many of such
children receive the services.
Interagency Meetings. On December 5, 2008, ACF convened a meeting
of representatives from the United States (U.S.) Department of
Education (ED), Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of
Migrant Education; the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and
Training Administration; and the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA),
Office of Migrant Health; the HHS Administration for Children and
Families, Office of Head Start (OHS), Migrant and Seasonal Head Start,
and the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation. The purpose of the
meeting was to engage these agencies in discussing their efforts in
collecting, reporting, and sharing data and lessons learned to enhance
coordination among agencies at the Federal, State, and local levels.
This meeting resulted in the organization of a series of Interagency
Roundtables on Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers.
The Roundtables will look at:
Data collection efforts affecting migrant and seasonal
farmworker children and their families, including efforts to maintain
and coordinate their health and education records: How are data efforts
pursued and maintained? How are data collected and reported? What are
the lessons learned from previous attempts at coordinating data
collection efforts?
Accounting for the number of eligible children/workers, as
well as the number of children/workers who receive services: How do
various organizations identify gaps in their services? How can these
approaches be improved? and
Identifying barriers that prevent eligible migrant and
seasonal farmworkers and their families from accessing migrant and
seasonal services: How can these barriers be reduced, ameliorated or
eliminated?
After a first planning meeting with agencies involved, the first
Roundtable was held in April 2009 and focused on the Department of
Education's Migrant Student Information Exchange (MSIX) and the
Department of Labor's National Agricultural Worker's Survey (NAWS). The
second half of the day involved active discussions between the Federal
representatives, addressing the topical questions in light of the
presented information. An additional meeting was held on March 17,
2010.
Systematic Data Collection: Accounting for the Number of Children
Eligible
Farmworkers are eligible for MSHS services based on mobility,
employment, age of the children, and income. For the eligibility of
migrants, the family must be primarily engaged in agricultural work and
have changed geographical locations within the past 24 months in
pursuit of agricultural work. For seasonal farmworkers eligible for
MSHS, the parents must be primarily engaged in farmwork but need not
have changed geographical locations within the past 24 months. For both
migrant and seasonal farmworkers, acceptable farmwork includes
production and harvesting of tree and field crops. Production and
harvesting of tree and field crops include preparing the soil,
planting, cultivating, picking, packing, canning, and processing.
Agricultural work that supports the crop production such as irrigation,
crop protection, and operation of farm machinery are also included.
Production and harvesting of greenhouse and nursery products may also
be included. Eligible children range in age from newborn up to
compulsory school age. Income requirements for families are based on
poverty guidelines updated annually in the Federal Register by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. The income of migrant and
seasonal eligible families must be primarily derived from agricultural
work.
As OHS has been asked to account for the total number of MSHS-
eligible children, it reviewed the data collection resources of other
Federal agencies that are also currently serving or observing migrant
and seasonal farmworkers. These included the Enumeration Studies of
Migrant Health; Reports of Migrant Health Clinics; Data Transferring
Efforts of Migrant Education; and the National Agricultural Workers
Survey (NAWS) of the Department of Labor.
The methodology of the Enumeration Profiles (Larson Assistance
Services, Vashon Island; 1990; 2001; 2002) was very individualized per
State and involved intensive effort. The results presented estimates of
the number of farmworkers within a State and, when possible, by county
and across age groups. The resulting profile estimations were based on
secondary data analyses and the opinions of invested experts; the
validity and reliability of the information was therefore undermined by
the inherent variations in quality and quantity of data from State to
State.
There are 154 Federally funded migrant health center (MHC)
entities, sponsored by the Office of Migrant Health, that collectively
operate more than 500 satellite service sites that comprise a loosely
knit network of independent organizations serving migrant and seasonal
farmworkers. Their annual reports present the national and State number
of farmworkers served by the clinic sites: http://bphc.hrsa.gov/uds/2007data/National/migrant/NationalTable3Amhc.htm. However,
methodological and definitional issues currently undermine the
possibility of using Migrant Health Clinic data to
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account for numbers of MSHS-eligible nationally. The HRSA definition of
farmworkers eligible for service is similar to the MSHS definition in
terms of the types of farmwork allowable and the mobility requirements.
However, HRSA does not require the whole family to engage in
agricultural work or to change geographical location in order to
receive services. Methodologically, programs do not consistently share
data across sites, so the cumulative count of individuals served may
include workers who are counted more than one time as they migrate for
work. Further, information about the entire family is not reported for
each individual, so siblings that might be eligible for MSHS are not
identified. Finally, migrant clinics are scattered across the U.S., but
their distribution does not necessarily reflect a geographically
representative profile of farmworkers in the U.S.
Migrant Education of ED uses an extensive network of recruiters to
actively identify eligible students in each area. The Migrant Education
program uses a data transferring system to coordinate records across
schools for children of migrant farmworkers. Again, definitional and
methodological issues reduce the usefulness of these data for
identifying the number of MSHS-eligible nationally. Migrant Education
services are available for children who traveled with their families
within the past three years for purposes of a family member's temporary
or seasonal employment with agricultural, fishing, farming or logging.
Further, Migrant Education recruiters are primarily interested in
identifying eligible three-year-olds through high school aged. Given
these definitions, the number of children eligible for Migrant
Education will differ markedly from those eligible for MSHS.
OHS also reviewed an additional established methodology for
accounting for the national population of migrant and seasonal
farmworkers: The National Agricultural Worker's Survey (NAWS). NAWS is
a national, random sample survey of crop farmworkers in the continental
U.S. that is housed at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The data is
collected directly from agricultural workers, on an annual basis, using
field survey methods. Estimates and data from this effort have been
used by HRSA, Migrant Education, and DOL-Farmworkers Job Programs.
Topics covered by NAWS have included farmworker work histories and
tasks, as well as health and housing. The survey methodology is
complex, with sampling occurring three times per year to capture
seasonal and geographic variations in the farmworker population. NAWS
interviewers travel to randomly selected counties, contacting an annual
sample of approximately 500 agricultural employers to obtain
cooperation for the survey. At the randomly selected agricultural
establishments, interviewers draw a random sample of farmworkers and
then administer the questionnaire. DOL calculates estimates of each
State's share of the Migrant Seasonal Farmworkers population based on a
formula that includes several data sources, including the Census of
Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Quarterly
Agricultural Labor Survey and NAWS. Strengths and weaknesses of each of
these datasets are outlined in Steirman, Kissam, and Nakamoto, 1998.
Estimating the national number of eligible MSHS children using NAWS
data is a multi-step process. The first step is to calculate a size
estimate for the national farmworker population (typically done using
either the USDA Farm Labor Survey or the USDA Census of Agriculture).
The second step is to identify the percent of the farmworker population
eligible for MSHS and the average number of infant through pre-school
aged children per family (using three-year averages of NAWS data
regarding percentages of farmworker families meeting eligibility
requirements). From steps one and two, it is possible to estimate the
national average of eligible migrant and seasonal children. To further
refine these numbers to agricultural regions, it is necessary to
incorporate data regarding the proportion of farmworkers within each
region (USDA Farm Labor Survey), and multiply the national average of
eligible by these proportions.
Upon review of these methods, the NAWS methodology was identified
as an established, carefully designed, large scale approach to
estimating numbers of agricultural workers nationally and by
agricultural regions. Beginning in February 2008, ACF partnered with
DOL to use this established survey to gather a national estimate of
MSHS-eligible children (both migrant and seasonal). Estimates for seven
multi-state agricultural regions will also be calculated. In June 2009,
the results from the pilot year of NAWS will be made available to OHS
for review and discussion. Further minor refinement of the NAWS-MSHS
questions will be ongoing, to ensure that children who match to the
MSHS definition of eligible can be accurately identified.
Additional Systematic Data Collection: Design for MSHS Survey
A team of researchers, led by CDM, Inc., contracted in September
2007, to design the methodology for an MSHS Survey. The plans will
detail multiple options for gathering descriptive data at varied levels
of the MSHS organization (i.e., program, center, staff, children and/or
families). The development activities included gathering of insight and
suggestions from program staff, administrators and families who are
currently or previously served by MSHS. Topics that could be addressed
by the survey and the methods outlined for gathering the data have been
substantially shaped and refined by this input from program
stakeholders. After completion of the contract and review by ACF
leadership, the report for the Design for MSHS Survey project will be
placed online in late 2010.
(1) A Plan To Identify Obstacles and Barriers
Focus Groups. As a first step in developing a plan to identify
barriers, ACF consulted with MSHS advocates, grantees, families and
researchers attending the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth Annual Migrant
and Seasonal Head Start Conferences in Washington, D.C. Potential
themes regarding obstacles and barriers will be explored by providing
venues that will allow opportunities for comment by key stakeholders.
These discussions will be used to seek examples of high-quality
recruitment and outreach efforts, details of families' and programs'
perceptions of barriers, and potential solutions for reducing or
eliminating barriers. The information gained through these venues is
being analyzed and will be made available to Federal partners, Migrant
and Seasonal Head Start grantees, and advocacy groups for comment and
validation.
Efforts for additional discussions with stakeholders are
continually explored.
Systematic Data Collection: Identification of Obstacles and Barriers
As discussed extensively above, the NAWS is a national, random
sample survey of crop farmworkers in the continental U.S. that is
housed at DOL. Beginning in February 2008, ACF partnered with DOL to
pilot a questionnaire supplement to NAWS, aimed at families with
children under the age of six. The questionnaire supplement asks about:
Child care options used by the parents in recent months,
Reasons for those choices,
Parents' knowledge of MSHS,
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Families' participation in MSHS, and
Any perceived obstacles to participation.
The resulting information can be collected for multiple cycles of
NAWS data, identifying potential issues in various agricultural regions
over the course of the seasons. If continued for multiple years, it
should be possible to identify trends in farmworker family child care
use for their young children and family perceptions of MSHS.
Systematic Data Collection: Incorporation of Related Questions in
Design of MSHS Survey
The design options for the MSHS Survey will include components that
OHS could use to gather information regarding obstacles and barriers.
Possible routes identified thus far include record reviews that could
provide insight (e.g., review of local community needs assessments and
program recruitment methods); gathering staff and parent opinions
regarding obstacles and barriers to MSHS participation; or direct
interviews with community partners and local advocacy organizations.
The design contract will illuminate methodological and logistical
considerations for collecting these types of data, and will be useful
as OHS considers future data collection strategies.
(1) A Plan for Eliminating Identified Barriers and for Increasing
Enrollment of Eligible Children
Based on the information obtained from the Migrant and Seasonal
Roundtables, and input from MSHS grantees, families, researchers, and
private organizations involved in advocating for Migrant and Seasonal
families, ACF will develop a plan that will articulate barriers
identified through (1) and (2) above, propose methods for dealing with
them that are within ACF's legislative purview, and incorporate methods
that require action by other Federal agencies or statutory changes. The
plan for eliminating identified barriers will form the basis for a
strategy to increase the enrollment of eligible children in MSHS, as
appropriate.
Dated: May 21, 2010.
Yvette Sanchez Fuentes,
Director, Office of Head Start.
[FR Doc. 2010-12795 Filed 5-27-10; 8:45 am]
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