Migrant Students Migrant students may change locations as often as six times a school year. Problems arise because of language barriers, not informing school officials of a move, or student records being left at a previous school. As a consequence, school officials often must guess at the appropriate placement for each new student and dropout rates are high. An underlying cause of school dropout is a psychological disengagement from school. 10 Highly mobile migrant students have particular difficulty in developing identification with schooling. They lack the opportunity to deepen the level of their school activities and to develop long term relationships with peers and teachers. Technology helps schools meet the challenge of educating migrant students. The Office of Migrant Education of the U.S. Department of Education has funded five Migrant Education Technology Grants projects that provide access and technology to migrant students. All of these projects cross state boundaries, fund professional development, provide online mentoring, and emphasize family involvement. Several Migrant Education Technology Grant projects develop Web-based student registries containing demographic data, name, and location of last school attended, grades, test scores, and student work samples. These projects aim to lower the droput rate by utilizing technology that gives these students familiar software, consistent instructional programs across locations, and consistent mentoring. Migrant Education Technology Grants ESTRELLA (Encouraging Students Through Technology to Reach High Expectations in Learning, Lifeskills, and Achievement) is one of the five Migrant Education Technology Grants. Based in Texas, it helps students who migrate to Illinois, Montana, and New York to prepare for college. The program provides laptop computers for migrant students to communicate with Cyber mentors (college students) and to complete coursework offered by NovaNet. Texas secondary courses are offered online through the NovaNet system. Descriptions of the remaining grant programs are also available online: Project Migrant Education (MEP) Consortium Incentive Grants Kentucky Migrant Technology Project Anchor School Project