20 U.S.C. § 6398 — Coordination of migrant education activities

(a)(1) After consulting the States, the Secretary may make grants to, or contracts with, State educational agencies, local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, and other public or private entities to improve coordination among these agencies’ educational programs across and within States. This may include creating or improving programs that let migratory children accrue and exchange credits. (2) Grants under this subsection may last no more than 5 years. (b)(1) The Secretary must help States transfer student records electronically and determine the number of migratory children in each State. (2)(A) The Secretary, after consulting the States, must ensure that migrant student record systems are linked so the States can electronically exchange health and educational information about all migratory students eligible under this part. The Secretary must ensure that this linkage is cost-effective and uses systems that the States used before December 10, 2015, or systems the States developed after December 10, 2015. The information may include: (i) immunization records and other health information; (ii) elementary and secondary academic history, including partial credit, credit accrual, and results from State assessments under section 6311(b)(2); (iii) other academic information essential to ensuring that migratory children meet the challenging State academic standards; and (iv) eligibility for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. (B) The Secretary must keep consulting with the States, local educational agencies, and other providers of services to migratory students about (i) how effective the system in subparagraph (A) is and (ii) how to keep improving it. (C) After consulting with the States under subparagraph (A), the Secretary must publish a notice in the Federal Register asking for public comments on any newly proposed data elements that each State receiving funds under this part must collect for electronically transferring migratory student information, and on the requirements States must meet for immediate electronic access to that information. (3) A State or local educational agency receiving assistance under this part must make student records available at no cost to another State or local educational agency that requests them, when the request is made to meet a migratory child’s needs. (c) To carry out this section in a fiscal year, the Secretary must reserve no more than $10,000,000 of the amount appropriated for that year to carry out this part. (d) From the amounts made available to carry out this section in a fiscal year, the Secretary may reserve no more than $3,000,000 for competitive grants of no more than $250,000 to State educational agencies that propose a consortium arrangement with another State or another appropriate entity that the Secretary determines, under criteria the Secretary establishes, will improve delivery of services to migratory children whose education is interrupted. (e) The Secretary must direct the National Center for Education Statistics to collect data on migratory children.