About Our OSY Program

GOAL
The goal of OSY is to design, develop, and disseminate a system to identify and recruit, assess, and develop/deliver services to migrant out-of-school youth, provide professional development to support these activities, and institutionalize OSY services into State plans to elevate the quantity and quality of services to this large, underserved population.

WHY OSY?
OSY was formed to address the growing out-of-school population among MEP secondary-aged youth, to design a well formulated process for assessing different needs within this population, and to develop appropriate service delivery models for out-of-school youth (OSY) who would like to continue their education and for those who are here-to-work.

OSY GRANT OVERVIEW
The Opportunities for Success for Out-of-School Youth (OSY) Migrant Education Program (MEP) Consortium Incentive Grant includes the 15 states of Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kansas (lead), Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Vermont as well as the 2 partner states of Georgia and Maryland.

WHY TARGET OSY

• OSY have unique needs resulting from their migrant lifestyle. They face all the obstacles to education encountered by other migrant students, and then more.
• With the current focus by NCLB on high-stakes accountability, these youth may often be the first to be pushed out and the first to be forgotten.
• OSY need advocates, people who can both motivate them and help them access needed services.
• Young people not in school have little or no access to federal or state resources.
• Without increased educational attainment or improved English language skills, OSY
  will remain poor and isolated from the larger society and economy.
• Demographic patterns in the MEP are shifting away from the migration of families toward the migration of single males and females.
• OSY is the fastest growing MEP population:
  • Youth not currently enrolled who do not have their diploma or GED