WATSONVILLE, Calif. (AP) -- A lifetime of moving has taught Claudia Morales to start packing early, because like many 13-year-olds, her room "is always a mess."
The hoodies go in her suitcase, but as usual, all her partially completed schoolwork ends up in the trash. Just a week later, Claudia has new notebooks, along with new textbooks, and three bulging suitcases to start unpacking 200 miles away.
She does this every year. Twice.
This December, thousands of migrant farmworker children are making their annual trek to new schools in California, but they do so also at other times throughout the country. During growing season, their parents rent low-cost housing in federally subsidized labor camps, but state rules mandate that families move at least 50 miles away when the camps close for the winter.
"We have a life we need to live," she said. "I like both places, but when I grow up I expect to have good work and buy a house where we can stay permanently."
Claudia gets straight As at one school, somewhat lower grades at her other. But as years pass and coursework gets more complex, the odds rise against her. Eventually, about 90 percent of kids living in seasonal worker housing drop out of school, according to the San Jose-based nonprofit human rights organization Human Agenda.
At Aptos Junior High School, where Claudia started eighth grade this fall, migrant counselor Juan Alcantar said he has a handful of students who are flunking every class, biding their months before their move, sometimes as far away as Mexico.
"They see themselves as visitors on this campus," he said. "They figure, `I come from a labor camp next to a dump site. I don't belong, and I'm leaving soon.'"
A state lawmaker this year tried to change the 50-mile rule, but the bill died in committee.
For Claudia, the cycle continues. Her labor camp is less than an hour drive south of Silicon Valley, where in the past 50 years the region has transitioned from lush orchards and vegetable fields to a global technology hub.
"This is a largely invisible population, but we all should care a whole lot about this," said Stanford University Professor Amado Padilla, who studies immigration. "Kids who don't finish school end up being a burden on society. On the flip side, kids who are well-educated end up being the caregivers both personally and economically of the older generation."
Read the full story at the Associated Press.
Amado Padilla is an associate professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education.
© Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305.
