Every year, thousands of migrant families travel across the state of Florida for work.
A new school is hoping to help the children of migrant families keep up in the classroom, while they’re on the move.
“What we did see is that we would have to go back to some of the basics to help them catch up with the other children who had that continuous attendance at the school, so to speak,” said Zenobia Cann of the W.E. Phillips Academy.
Cann said the school has seen an increase in their migrant students. As a result, the school is catering specifically to migrant families with bilingual teachers, the use of computers and smaller classroom settings to hopefully make life a bit easier on migrant families.
One of the unique aspects of the school is each migrant student will be given a thumb drive. That way, if they have to go from city to city -- or even state-to-state -- they’ll have their records with them.
“The new schools will be able to pick up where the students left off,” Cann said.
For families like Marcelino de la Pena’s, the consistency is one of the main reasons they’ll be enrolling.
“Well, yes, I feel very good now. I’m very glad with this,” de la Pena said.
They’re glad and now hopeful if they have to make a move, their kids' education will stay right on track.
The school officially opens in the fall for kindergarten through 2nd grade. They plan to have enough room for around 54 students.
Cann said the school will get funding from the Florida Department of Education, as well as a foundation the school will be setting up in the coming months.