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THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234
To: 
District Superintendents
Superintendents of Public Schools
Chief Information Officers / District Data Coordinators
From: 
Jason Harmon, Assistant Commissioner
Subject: 
2020-2021 Migrant Student Data Verification
Date: 
June 10, 2021

The New York State Migrant Education Program (NYS-MEP), under Title I, Part C of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, provides supplementary educational programs and supportive services to help migratory children overcome educational disruption, cultural and language barriers, social isolation, health-related problems, and other factors that inhibit the ability of such children to succeed in school, and to prepare them to make a successful transition to postsecondary education and/or employment.

To ensure that migrant children have been accurately identified and served during the 2020-2021 school year, the New York State Education Department (NYSED or “the Department”) is requiring each school district to verify students coded as migrant-eligible in its student data management system against a list of students that have been issued official Certificates of Eligibility (COE) for migrant education program eligibility and participation. The goals are (1) to update designations for incorrectly coded students; and (2) to submit the corrected data for inclusion in the Student Information Repository System (SIRS). The Department requires that migrant-eligible students must be accurately identified and coded when reporting such data to SIRS, as per requirements under ESSA § 1304(2).

To this end, please be informed that staff members from NYSED’s regional Migrant Education Tutorial and Support Services (METS) program centers will be contacting you and the Chief Information Officer/Data Coordinator in your district by June 15, 2021 in a separate letter with specific instructions on how to complete this data reconciliation process.  For METS contact information, please refer to: https://www.nysmigrant.org/mets.  

To determine which students in your school district are currently flagged in SIRS with the “Migrant” indicator for the 2020-2021 school year, please perform the following required activities:

  1. Run the L2RPT-SIRS 401 Reasonableness Report.
  1. Choose All Locations, Student Demographic category, and All Subtypes from the dropdown menu.
  1. Click on the Migrant category for “this year” to generate a list of students whom your district has currently designated as Migrant-eligible.

This data reconciliation process is critical in ensuring that all migrant-eligible students are provided with the appropriate educational programs and supportive services that best meet their needs, and that these students are accurately identified and coded in SIRS.  NYSED is required to submit such data to the United States Department of Education (ED) on the Migrant subgroup.  To ensure that this data is accurate and in compliance with federal regulations, migrant-eligible students must be identified and coded correctly in SIRS.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this reporting process, please do not hesitate to contact Kin T. Chee or Erin Allen at the Department. They can be reached at kin.chee@nysed.gov  or erin.allen@nysed.gov respectively.  You may also wish to contact your local Migrant Education Tutorial and Support Services (METS) program centers for assistance. Their contact information is available at: https://www.nysmigrant.org/map

Thank you very much for your assistance.

cc:  METS Directors
Erica Meaker
Kristen DeSalvatore
Rose Leroy
Kin T. Chee
Erin Allen
Will Messier
Odilia Coffta