The recruiter may find it helpful to go on recruitment visits with outreach workers from other programs or agencies. For example, a recruiter may wish to join outreach staff from the National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP), administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, to learn how they approach migrant families and to learn more about the services they provide (more information on other agencies and organizations that provide services to farmworkers and their families is found in Appendix II). Advanced Training and Ongoing Professional Development The law that authorizes the MEP is updated every six to eight years, and ED then generally develops updated MEP regulations and Guidance. Periodically, there are changes to other federal and state laws that affect migrant families as well, such as immigration or privacy laws. To properly identify and recruit migrant children the recruiter must keep up with changes in the law, regulations, and Guidance that affect the eligibility of migrant children (more information on other laws that may affect migrant families is found in Appendix I). To stay current the recruiter should participate in advanced child eligibility training and ongoing professional development to continually update and improve needed knowledge and skills. The recruiter should make a point of attending local, regional, statewide, and national trainings when possible. Regardless of years of experience, recruiters and supervisors who do not participate in ongoing eligibility training are more likely to make mistakes when making child eligibility determinations than those who are trained regularly. In particular, experienced recruiters may be tempted to apply policies that were learned as new recruiters out of habit, even though those policies may be out-of-date. Timely training and regular meetings can help experienced recruiters overcome these old habits. Some questions a recruiter may want to answer after going through advanced eligibility training include: Have any changes been made to the child eligibility requirements for the MEP? If so, what are they? How do I determine child eligibility in difficult cases? How can I strengthen my recruitment network? How can I improve my interviewing skills? What common mistakes have recruiters made in determining child eligibility and/or filling out COEs and how can I avoid making those mistakes? What ethical dilemmas could I encounter and how do I handle them? How are these and other recent changes reflected in my district, region, or state?
The recruiter may find it helpful to go on recruitment visits with outreach workers from other programs or agencies. For example, a recruiter may wish to join outreach staff from the National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP), administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, to learn how they approach migrant families and to learn more about the services they provide (more information on other agencies and organizations that provide services to farmworkers and their families is found in Appendix II). Advanced Training and Ongoing Professional Development The law that authorizes the MEP is updated every six to eight years, and ED then generally develops updated MEP regulations and Guidance. Periodically, there are changes to other federal and state laws that affect migrant families as well, such as immigration or privacy laws. To properly identify and recruit migrant children the recruiter must keep up with changes in the law, regulations, and Guidance that affect the eligibility of migrant children (more information on other laws that may affect migrant families is found in Appendix I). To stay current the recruiter should participate in advanced child eligibility training and ongoing professional development to continually update and improve needed knowledge and skills. The recruiter should make a point of attending local, regional, statewide, and national trainings when possible. Regardless of years of experience, recruiters and supervisors who do not participate in ongoing eligibility training are more likely to make mistakes when making child eligibility determinations than those who are trained regularly. In particular, experienced recruiters may be tempted to apply policies that were learned as new recruiters out of habit, even though those policies may be out-of-date. Timely training and regular meetings can help experienced recruiters overcome these old habits. Some questions a recruiter may want to answer after going through advanced eligibility training include: Have any changes been made to the child eligibility requirements for the MEP? If so, what are they? How do I determine child eligibility in difficult cases? How can I strengthen my recruitment network? How can I improve my interviewing skills? What common mistakes have recruiters made in determining child eligibility and/or filling out COEs and how can I avoid making those mistakes? What ethical dilemmas could I encounter and how do I handle them? How are these and other recent changes reflected in my district, region, or state?