Alaska districts have until Nov. 15 to recertify more than 15,000 migratory children

Alaska school districts have until Nov. 15 to certify or recertify children in the state's federal migrant education program, the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development said Wednesday. The deadline determines how much federal money follows the more than 15,000 Alaska children the state counted as migratory last school year.

In Alaska, the main way children have qualified is through their families' travel to fish for food. Federal rules count a move to fish for "personal subsistence" as qualifying work. In the 2019-20 school year, subsistence was the qualifying work in 86% of cases, and 94% of the state's eligibility forms included fishing, according to the department's evaluation of the program. Moves to hunt or gather wood do not qualify.

The money comes from Title I-C, the federal migrant education program, which pays for extra services for children whose families move for seasonal or temporary fishing or farm work. Alaska identified 15,072 migratory children in the 2024-25 school year, and 11,957 received services the program paid for, according to a March report to the state Board of Education. Most received support services, and 5,253 received instruction.

A child can stay eligible for up to three years after a qualifying move, but districts must verify that eligibility every year. Children who are not recertified by the deadline stay eligible for services and free meals, but their district gets no funding for them, according to the department's 2026-2027 MIS2000 User Guide.

Not every eligible child gets served. "The Title I-C program is not required to serve every eligible migratory child," the department's district staff manual says, noting that funds are limited and local programs "are often forced to make tough decisions."

No eligibility determination is final until a state reviewer approves it, and districts must send the state a random sample of signed paper forms to check against the database, according to the evaluation. Federal rules also require the state to review its eligibility decisions every year.