Migrant education: California Mini-Corps program and currently migratory children.

Existing law establishes the State Department of Education under the administration of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Existing law assigns numerous duties and responsibilities to the department, including, among others, the management of the federally funded Migrant Education Program (MEP) , which includes the California Mini-Corps (CMC) program, a statewide program designed to provide direct instructional services for currently migratory children in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, through a cadre of trained college tutors with the goals of increasing currently migratory children's academic achievement and developing future bilingual-bicultural, credentialed teachers. This bill would codify the CMC program and would require the department to annually select one county office of education to voluntarily administer the CMC program for the next fiscal year and would require the chosen county office of education to operate not less than 20 program sites at institutions of higher education and, on or before June 1 of each year, provide the identity of tutors from the 6 prior fiscal year's cohorts to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, as provided. The bill would require the commission to, on or before July 31 of each year, report to the department which tutors from the 6 prior fiscal year's cohorts earned a preliminary teaching credential, as provided. The bill would require the department to, on or before December 1 of each year, provide an annual report to the Legislature and the Department of Finance that includes the number of currently migratory children served by the program statewide and includes the data reported by the commission, as provided. The bill would require the department to annually report on its internet website the total number of migrant children statewide, as provided.