Elementary and Secondary Education Act
President Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act into law two days later on April 9, 1965.New Titles Created by Early Amendments to 1965 LawTitle I ("Title One"), a provision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act passed in 1965, is a program created by the U.S. Department of Education to distribute funding to schools and school districts with a high percentage of students from low-income families. Funding is distributed first to state educational agencies (SEAs) which then allocate funds to local educational agencies (LEA's) which in turn dispense funds to public schools in need. Title I also helps children from families that have migrated to the United States and youth from intervention programs who are neglected or at risk of abuse. The act appropriates money for educational purposes for the next five fiscal years until it is reauthorized. In addition, Title I appropriates money to the education system for prevention of dropouts and the improvement of schools; these appropriations are carried out for five fiscal years until reauthorization.
Migrant education
In 1965, as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "War on Poverty", Title I of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was framed to help support economically disadvantaged students within the United States. However, this act failed to address the specific non-economic barriers faced by migrant workers and their families so it was amended in 1966 to include the Migrant Education Program (MEP). MEP provides support for children of migrant workers through educational services such as extended school days, summer programs, ESL classes, etc. Eligibility requirements are solely based on the mobility of children and not on their economic or cultural struggles as migrants. This was because Title I already focuses on economically disadvantaged children, so it was assumed that children who qualify for MEP would be receiving benefits from those pre-existing anti-poverty programs. To be included in the Migrant Education Program, children must have had moved school districts for temporary or seasonal agricultural work within the past 3 years. The definition of who qualifies has changed several times since 1966. In 1974, the MEP expanded in scope by including migratory fishing, meat-packing, and other agriculture-related jobs into the categories of eligibility. This was also the year that the period of eligibility was increased from 3 years to 6 years after relocating school districts; however, in 1994 with the passage of the Improving America's Schools Act, it was returned to 3 years. In 1994, the definition of who qualified for MEP was further limited to those children who moved school districts for agriculture-related work that represented their family's "principle means of livelihood."