Out-of-School
Youth
(OSY)
The purpose of the Title I, Part C Program (MEP) is to design and support programs that help eligible migratory students overcome the challenges of mobility, cultural and language barriers, social isolation, and other difficulties associated with a migratory lifestyle. These efforts are aimed at helping migratory students succeed in school and successfully transition to postsecondary education, military, and/or employment.
Most often, schools’ programmatic efforts focus on school-age children, thus providing and coordinating services for students in grades K-12. The MEP broadens its efforts to include pre-school and out-of-school youth by expanding the definition of an eligible migratory child from the age of 3 through 21 years old. In doing so, MEPs can also focus efforts on those out-of-school youth and here-to-work youth who are not enrolled in school but still have needs and are eligible for services.
In carrying out a Title I, Part C Program, there must be adequate provision for addressing the unmet education needs of preschool migratory children and migratory children who have dropped out of school.
In providing services with Title I, Part C funds, LEAs shall give priority to serving PFS migratory children before using MEP funds to address the needs of other migratory children. PFS students are defined as migratory children who have made a qualifying move within the previous 12-month period and (1) who are failing or most at risk of failing to meet the state’s academic standards; or (2) have dropped out of school.
OSY Defined
- Students who have dropped out of school
- Youth who are working on a high school equivalency diploma (HSED) outside of a K-12 institution
- Youth who are “here-to-work”
How can the MEP identify and recruit OSY?
Research & Planning
LEAs should include an OSY-specific section in the Identification and Recruitment (ID&R) Action Plan outlining their various recruitment efforts for the upcoming year.
Recruiters should be trained annually by the regional ESC. Recruiters should increase their awareness of potential OSY by conducting some research activities using school records, MEP reports, and other tools. For example:
- Actively seek high school-age students who were enrolled in school last year, but did not re-enroll for the current year.
- Follow up on students who appear on school withdrawal lists indicating “withdrawn to home country” or “withdrawn to homeschool” to ensure the student is not still residing within the district’s boundaries, thus qualifying for MEP services.
- Request a current list of OSY migratory children within the district from the regional service center.
- Run a prior year and current year TX-NGS report of migratory students in grades 8-12 and compare for possible OSY students. Reports could include a District Report, Unique Student Count, and Out-of-School Youth.
- Run a current H-2A Visa employer list for your district’s area.
- Research the H-2A worker list online for new housing locations and work sites.
Outreach to Families
Because Out-of-School (OSY) youth are not easily identified through school enrollment paperwork, the OSY recruiter must use additional strategies to actively identify and recruit these youth. This includes reaching out to families. Recruiters should consider:
- Add a question on the Family Survey to identify potential OSY in the family.
- Asking parents during the interview process if there are any children or young adults residing in the home or property who are not in school.
- Follow up with any OSY identified by a family member during an interview to determine what specific OSY needs they may have.
- Reaching out directly to any migratory students who are officially designated “drop out”.
- Visiting employer-provided housing sites, housing camps.
Outreach in the Community
Because Out-of-School (OSY) youth are not easily identified through school enrollment paperwork, the OSY recruiter must use additional strategies to actively identify and recruit these youth. This includes reaching out to employers and other agencies or visiting sites frequented by migratory families. Recruiters should consider:
- Visiting employers who hire migratory workers and letting them know that individuals through age 21 may qualify for the MEP and services.
- Contacting employers of identified OSY. Because OSY often work or live together, regular follow up at worksites or residences may lead to identifying additional OSY. Building trust encourages referrals as others move in.
- Visiting work sites, such as fields, sheds, plant, dairies, feed yards.
- Visiting check cashing stores, especially on pay days.
- Reaching out to agricultural extension offices and local agricultural employers to provide information about the MEP and OSY.
- Visiting local social service agencies, adult education and ESL programs.
Marketing Opportunities
Because Out-of-School (OSY) youth are not easily identified through school enrollment paperwork, the OSY recruiter must use additional strategies to actively identify and recruit these youth. This includes marketing the services available. Recruiters should consider:
- Posting flyers at local laundromats
- Recruiting at grocery stores—set up table outside for information and recruitment, especially during applicable crop times when new workers may be arriving
- Setting up an informational table regarding services available for migratory children at early childhood registration (e.g., Head Start, PreK) as these parents might be OSY
What are the next steps after identifying eligible OSY?
Children who have dropped out of school may have different needs and require different services than those who are here-to-work. Knowing your OSY and their unique needs will allow a MEP to better serve them. These needs should be accounted for in the Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA).
Student-Focused Check In: After identification, the recruiter engages the student in an open, informal conversation to learn about their needs and foster a relationship before proceeding with the MEP OSY interview.
Individual needs of each child should be identified using an OSY Profile. The MEP recruiter meets with the OSY face-to-face to complete the profile. MEP staff is responsible for uploading the information on the OSY profile into TX-NGS and maintaining updates as needed.
A best practice for this OSY Profile Meeting is to provide a copy of a district-specific OSY Brochure or one-pager highlighting local agencies and organizations that provide various services and supports. Specific referrals can be made and highlighted on the brochure depending on the immediate identified needs of the OSY student.
Sample OSY Brochure
Submitted by Brownsville ISD
How does the MEP serve OSY?
Support for Basic Needs
Support for Basic Needs
Because OSY students are not attending school like traditional migratory students, often their needs are unrecognized or unmet.
Some OSY are conflicted about continuing their education. Many do not want to return to school for various reasons and feel restrained by their daily life and basic survival needs. These OSY are primarily focused on the work before them since many find themselves as the primary provider for themselves or their families. Even though there may be barriers to OSY who are here-to-work attaining a formal education, they do desire the opportunities and resources to more actively engage in the community and improve their futures.
They are eligible to the same coordination and provision of services through the MEP that all migratory students receive. OSY may have health, nutritional, transportation, and other needs. MEP staff should ensure that OSY needs are identified and services are provided through coordination of services, referred services, or direct services. MEP staff may provide transportation or coordinate transportation services to access basic needs resources.
Return to School
Return to School or Continuing Education
Once an OSY student’s immediate needs are addressed, the recruiter can support the student in exploring educational options and future goals. For some this may mean returning back to high school, completing their credits and graduation. Other students may consider a high school equivalency (HSE) as their route to future success. For either of these paths, the MEP can coordinate the return to education and help address barriers—language skills, transportation, childcare, access to school supplies—that may inhibit an OSY’s return to the educational setting.
It is the responsibility of the MEP to ensure that ALL students who are high school aged and under 22 years of age are provided with every opportunity to graduate from High School or attend a High School Equivalency (HSE).
Re-engaging OSY back on-track to graduation
(submitted by PSJA ISD)
All OSY students once identified should have their needs assessed as quickly as possible to ensure a smooth return to school or an alternative option if that is what they desire. This shortens their educational disruption and decreases the possibility that they may not want to return to school at all.
High School Options
High School Equivalency Program
The HEP helps migratory and seasonal farm-workers and their immediate family members who are 16 years of age or older and not currently enrolled in school to obtain the equivalent of a high school diploma and subsequently to gain employment or begin post-secondary education or training. HEP helps students who have dropped out of high school get their High School Equivalency Credentials and serves more than 6,000 students annually. HEP Projects are located across the United States.
Texas High School Equivalency Program
The purpose of the HSEP is to prepare eligible Texas students to pass the high school equivalency exams instead of earning a high school diploma. The HSEP allows students who are at risk of dropping out of high school to earn a high school equivalency credential. The TEA provides a list of schools which operate a HSEP.
Job Training & Career Opportunities
Job Training & Career Opportunities
Because OSY students are not attending school like traditional migratory students, often they do not have the same awareness of job training or career opportunities. As with all other needs, MEP staff should coordinate with other entities to provide OSY with access to these resources.
iSOSY provides many resources for OSY including a Career Awareness Toolkit and targeted lessons, modules, and webinars on a variety of subjects.
Many additional job-related and workforce training resources can be found on the TMEP portal’s OSY page for Parents and Families.
OSY Service Referrals
(content submitted by La Joya ISD)
When meeting with OSY, MEP staff should be prepared to share information and resources available with job and career opportunities in the immediate vicinity.
OSY seeking employment will have better success outcomes if contact is made with the participating agency prior to student referral. An OSY should not be sent to an appointment without consulting with the receiving agency first in order to make for a smooth transition and so that the service provider is expecting the OSY.
Use the OSY Student Services Referral form to document services coordinated for the OSY and when/how those services were received.
Community Fairs
Community Fairs
One way to provide OSY with access to local organizations and agencies in the community is to host a community fair. This type of event would allow OSY to connect with local job agencies, technical schools, and other service organizations in the area.
Tips for Hosting a Community Fair
(content submitted by Weslaco ISD)
- Run a TX-NGS report to determine the number of OSY students.
- Contact local job agencies, technical schools, and social service organizations to ask them to send representatives on the date chosen for the fair.
- Have recruiters/social workers make home visits to personally invite OSY.
- On the day of the fair, ask all OSY to sign in and provide updated contact information.
- Follow up with home visits after the fair to encourage and assist OSY to take advantage of programs that were shared at the fair.
Initial Planning
Initial Planning
In addition to including an OSY-specific section in the Identification & Recruitment (ID&R) Action Plan, ESCs, SSAs, and Project Districts should develop an OSY monitoring plan.
The monitoring plan should include the following: goals and objectives, activities to meet the goals with specific measurable outcomes. At the minimum, monitoring plans should include initial visits with OSY plus regularly scheduled and documented follow-up contact/visits and support.
The OSY ID&R and monitoring plans will vary by district based on a number of factors, including but not limited to: number of identified OSY, geographical size of the district, number and location of potential agricultural and fishing work recruitment sites, and number of recruiters.
Ongoing Monitoring
Ongoing Monitoring
Once OSY are identified, MEP staff should monitor them regularly in order to coordinate services, document residency, and build rapport.
Monthly OSY Follow-Up (content submitted by Brownsville ISD).
The MEP recruiter responsible for identifying OSY maintains an OSY binder with a separate file for each OSY and an OSY Monthly Contact Log for the school year to document monthly follow-up visits. The log documents current contact information for the OSY, current status of school/work, their needs, and follows-up on any previously referred services. The monthly follow-up visits may be either face-to-face or via phone call, whichever method works best in connecting with the student. The recruiter may also meet with the counselor to provide any additional information about the student, which the recruiter enters into the OSY Contact Log. The counselor may also reach out to the OSY and coordinate additional services as needed.
The MEP can determine staff assignments to designate who works with identified OSY within the district. This ensures all OSY are accounted for and all staff know who is supporting which OSY. An annual calendar of scheduled visits also ensures that all OSY ensure the same number of visits each year. Additionally each staff member completes the OSY Student Summary to ensure current and consistent information is maintained on OSY.
Sample Forms
Sample Forms
These sample forms for documenting OSY contact have been shared by different districts. They are not official approved forms but can be used to get ideas and adapted or modified to fit your needs.
OSY Monthly
Contact Log
Submitted by Brownsville ISD
OSY Student
Summary
Submitted by Brownsville ISD
OSY Cumulative
Contact Log
Submitted by PSJA ISD
OSY Service
Spreadsheet
Submitted by ESC-20
Encourage Communication
Encourage Communication
Parents of OSY may struggle to know how to support their children. This occurs because they do not know what is available for their child who is no longer in school and the child is asserting their independence. MEP staff can support parents by:
- Building relationships and listening to parental concerns with OSY.
- Inviting parents of OSY for Migrant PAC meetings.
- Introducing parents of OSY to other parents of OSY.
Provide Information
Provide Information
MEP staff can support parents by providing information about:
- How the MEP coordinates resources for identified needs.
- Alternative education opportunities for their OSY such as HSE, Vocational Programs, Workforce Solutions, and community English classes.
- The Parents and Families section of the TMEP portal, in particular the OSY page.
OSY Resource Links
Additional Info for ESCs
ESC Responsibilities
Provide Training and Technical Assistance for Project Districts
ESCs should provide training to ensure Independent Project Districts:
- Understand the definition of OSY and how they qualify for the MEP
- Know where and how to identify OSY since they will not be able to rely on usual school recruitment efforts
- Identify the needs of OSY and include services to address those needs
- Coordinate resources and make referrals for OSY
- Provide options for re-engaging OSY into school
Identify and Provide Services
In addition to training and providing technical assistance regarding OSY to Independent Project Districts, the ESC must:
- Designate a staff member who will be dedicated to region-wide recruitment of OSY who have not been recruited by an LEA
- Ensure individual needs for instructional support services have been identified
- Identify available resources and make referrals to address said needs
- Coordinate with local agencies, LEA resources, and workforce boards to ensure that OSY have access to appropriate services
- Follow up, monitor, and document progress of Independent Project Districts toward identifying and serving OSY
- Submit a regional OSY evaluation report to the TEA at the end of the grant period
To download the current OSY reporting documents, log in to the ESC MEP Staff Only section of the TMEP portal. They are in the section called: TEA Resources to Support the ESSA Application, Compliance, and the CIC.
Supporting OSY in Non-Project Districts
At a minimum, the ESC OSY recruiters will be responsible for the following Non-Project District activities related to OSY:
- Identifying and recruiting all OSY
- Determining individual needs for instructional and support services
- Identifying available resources and making referrals to address said needs (e.g., tutoring, High School Equivalency Certificate)
- Coordinating with local workforce boards, community agencies, LEA resources and support for OSY dropout and recovery programs, and other entities to ensure that the OSY have access to appropriate services
- Following up, monitoring, and documenting progress
- Submit a regional OSY evaluation report to the TEA at the end of the grant period
