IV. Proposed expenditures

No specific appropriation is being requested for projects in connection with the education of migrants. Present personnel, now assigned largely to other projects, will give some time to the consideration of migrant education. Money for organizing and traveling to the proposed Northwest Migrant Conference will come from the travel and conference budget.

I. General statement

OFFICE OF VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION

Activities have been directed during the past year toward achievement of the Vocational rehabilitation goal, namely, to increase the awareness of the migrant problem among State vocational rehabilitation agencies and to encourge the agencies to provide services to handicapped migrant workers.

Selected publications relating to migrants have been sent to regional representatives to be used as the basis for informing and stimulating discussions with State agency personnel. The departmental statement entitled "Program Directions in Migrant Labor, Fiscal 1950," was made available to regional representatives in February 1958. In an effort to encourage State agencies to undertake rehabilitation of the disabled migrant, the release notice for the statement called attention to the fact that each operating unit of the Department has specific legal authority and responsibility for providing services to eligibles from the entire population including agricultural migrants.

II. Continuing accomplishments

Although there has not been an investigative study in fiscal 1958 devoted solely to determining the incidence of disability and handicapping conditions among migrant agricultural workers, affirmation that such conditions continue to exist is contained in the Third Progress Report of the California Farm Labor Project published June 1, 1958. This project, located in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley in central California, assessed the problem of chronic illness and disability among farm laborers and solutions were sought through the provision of rehabilitation services.

The creation of new referral sources and the stimulation of existing regular sources, such as welfare and public health agencies, which were found necessary at this stage of project operations, were achieved through discussions with staff and through use of slide pictures of migrant labor camps. These visual

aids were planned and developed by project personnel, and presented dramatically the rehabilitation problems and potentialities of agricultural migrant laborers. Thus reenergizing referral sources resulted in increased project activities.

From the start of the project on October 1, 1955, through March 31, 1958, 411 disabled agricultural migrants have been referred for evaluation of their rehabilitation potential. Of these, 159 were selected and received rehabilitation services provided under the project. An additional 156 agricultural migrants were assigned to the project from the general caseload, making 315 agricultural migrants who on March 31, 1958, had received rehabilitation services under project operations. With an acceleration in the rate of referrals this eligible group is expected to reach 400 at least by June 30, 1959.

Through project activities, the agricultural migrants referred for rehabilitation have been studied for information regarding the extent of illiteracy and the measurable intellectual and educational level of the group. Project workers indicate that as experience increases in how to deal with the agricultural migrant, it will be possible to rehabilitate successfully more of those with lowlevel educational attainments.

III. New program emphases

With completion on June 30, 1959, of the 3 years of operation of the California agricultural migrant project, a full report of project activities and accomplishments will be published. This report will be made available to each State agency in the hope that many States having an agricultural migrant population will adopt a positive approach toward the problem and begin specific and reportable activities toward the identification and rehabilitation of disabled migrant workers. States may seek solution of the disabled migrant problem through the establishment of a project similar to the one conducted in California. State agencies may also encourage staff to seek solutions to the problems of migrants

by identifying those created by the mobile pattern of their living which involves working out reciprocal procedures to insure some measure of success in providing rehabilitation services as they go from State to State.

IV. Proposed level of expenditures of requested appropriations

A specific dollar evaluation for rehabilitation services to disabled agricultural migrant workers cannot be identified in the current office program or in the estimates for the 1960 program.

This successful project undertaking in California expended from $150,000 to $200,000 for each of the 3 years of its operation. This extension and improvement project of rehabilitation services to migrants has now been incorporated as an ongoing procedure in the regular program of the State vocational rehabilitation agency.

PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE

I. General statement (authorization and purposes of agency as related to migratory labor)

The Public Health Service is the Federal agency specifically charged with general responsibility for protecting and improving the health of the Nation. Its major functions include: (1) Conducting and supporting research and training in the medical and related sciences and in public health methods and administration; and (2) assisting the States in the application of new knowledge to the prevention and control of disease, the maintenance of a healthful environment, and the development of community health services. To carry out these functions, the Public Health Service administers grants-in-aid to States, provides consultation and technical assistance to States and localities, assists in the training of personnel and the establishment of effective health procedures and practices, and conducts field surveys and demonstrations.

The Public Health Service maintains a continuing concern for the health of agricultural migrants as an integral part of its programs for the general population. In addition, it has specific responsibility for the examination of Mexican nationals to assure that they meet the mental and physical requirements for admission to the United States for temporary seasonal farmwork under contract under the international agreement between the United States and Mexico.

The Service recognizes that the presence of a considerable number of interstate migrants in any State is a special health problem, and that the character of American agricultural industry is such that this problem seems likely to continue in the foreseeable future. Therefore, it supports the premise that, within the limits of its funds and staff, assistance to States in providing more adequately for migrant health services is a particularly important and pertinent area of Federal health activity.

II. Continuing accomplishments

A unit on Rural Health and Agricultural Migrants in the Division of General Health Services, Bureau of State Services, is the focal point for migrant interests and activities in the Public Health Service. It gives continuing consideration to the development of Service policy and programs in the migrant field, working with other units of the Public Health Service, State health agencies, and other National and State agencies to encourage and develop health and related activities and to coordinate such effort among different agencies and between different geographic areas.

The unit collects and analyzes data on migrants; provides information, consultation, and technical assistance to interested groups including at times the temporary assignment of personnel to State health agencies; and conducts other activities to identify the health problems of agricultural migrants and develop ways to solve them. Staff members of the unit and other program specialty personnel represent the Service on departmental and interdepartmental migrant committees, conferences, and in numerous other relationships with national, regional, and State official and voluntary groups. Interdepartmental consideration of such problems as migrant housing, transportation, and financing health services requires continuing participation on the part of Public Health Service staff.

In addition to this focal point activity, the Public Health Service, through its Division of Foreign Quarantine, Bureau of Medical Services, conducts the physical examination program to determine the physical fitness of foreign nationals coming into the United States for seasonal farmwork under contract. The

Venereal Disease Branch of the Communicable Disease Center assists in this activity.

The Division of Indian Health in cooperation with the Denver regional office has been working with many of the western State and local health authorities on a cooperative program directed toward obtaining health standards for labor camps for Indians in the migratory labor force, and screening, immunization, and health education programs for the Indian population groups concerned. The National Institutes of Health through its research grant programs is currently supporting studies, conducted by university departments of public health, sociology, and anthropology, in order to obtain better data on the health problems, attitudes, and practices of migrant workers. Such research studies are essential to the development of improved methods of meeting the special health problems of migrant workers.

The Public Health Service also maintains a continuing interest in migrant health through programs and activities for the general population which include: (a) Research and demonstrations of methods of working with specific population groups, identifying their health problems, etc.

(b) Consultation and technical assistance to States, including at times the temporary assignment of personnel, for the study and control of environmental health problems, specific hazards of public health importance (for example, diarrheal disease, tuberculosis, venereal disease and other communicable diseases, chronic disease, and accidents) and related problems.

(c) Help on a broad front toward action to meet migrant health problems through sharing with the States by means of general health grants the costs of nursing, health education, laboratory, environmental sanitation, communicable disease control, and other services provided by local health jurisdictions; similarly sharing with the States the costs of meeting special health problems such as tuberculosis (on a formula grant basis) and venereal disease (on a special project grant basis), including the costs of case finding, diagnosis, and epidemiological followup. Costs are also shared for venereal disease treatment.

III. Program emphasis

It is proposed in fiscal year 1960 to continue the migrant health activities of the Public Health Service and particularly to stimulate and assist in the development of State and local migrant health programs designed, insofar as possible, to provide needed health services to migrants in all principal work and home base areas. Major objectives continue to be to provide greater continuity of services to migrants as they move, and to eliminate to the extent possible— wasteful duplication of effort in some cases and omission of needed services, including specific followup care, in others.

Specifically, activities will be continued at the 1959 level, directed toward identifying, testing, and encouraging more widespread use of proved techniques to meet the health problems of migrants and the problems of communities in providing them with health services. Examples of such activities include issuing a personal health record to the migrant to carry and present when he needs health services; providing migrants with information about the community health services available to them and their proper use; familiarizing health workers with the special characteristics of migrants and their living and working conditions from which ensue problems in providing health services under the usual arrangements; encouraging interest and active participation by health and medical authorities in both home base and work areas in planning extension of health services to migrants.

The Public Health Service will assist particularly in the interstate phases of projects, including the institution of special techniques to facilitate the provision and use of health services on a continuing basis. Public Health Service staff members will be available to the States on a consultant basis for this purpose.

IV. Proposed level of expenditures, fiscal year 1960

It is anticipated that the expenditures for the unit which serves as a focal point on migrant health will remain at the same level as for 1959. However, a number of Public Health Service programs have activities which bear directly or indirectly on the migrant health problem. Generally, however, their activities are not precisely measurable as specifically budgeted items for migrant health.

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

During the past year, activities of the Social Security Administration relating to migrant agricultural labor have been directed toward securing more adequate protection for migrants under the several programs of social security. These are basically income maintenance and services programs and include the federally administered old-age, survivors, and disability insurance program under which all persons meeting the requirement for benefits are covered on a uniform basis. The programs of Public Assistance and the Children's Bureau are public welfare programs administered on a Federal-State basis under which Federal grants are made to the State for certain programs set up by State law and administered by the States.

Certain requirements which are of major concern in connection with the agricultural migrants such as residence requirements are matters of State law or regulation. The fourth program under the Social Security Administration is the Bureau of Federal Credit Unions which has responsibility for chartering and supervising Federal Credit Unions.

Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance

The old-age, survivors, and disability insurance provisions of the Social Security Act provides basic social security protection for nearly all American families. The Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance attempts therefore to provide information about the program-about rights and responsibilities under the program-to all workers, farm and nonfarm, migrant and nonmigrant— and to their employers as well as to farm and nonfarm self-employed. Since the usual informational media and activities are not effective in reaching migrant workers and their families, special activities are undertaken to bring about a better understanding of social security among them.

The Bureau during 1958 developed a variety of special informational materials and initiated numerous activities designed to meet the special needs of English and Spanish-speaking agricultural migrant workers and their families. Generally, the materials were in both English and Spanish. Among the special materials prepared and released were: (1) film "Something for Tomorrow"; (2) film strip reprint "Social Security and the Migrant Worker"; (3) posters of migrants receiving benefits; (4) illustrated reader for literacy work with migrants-"Bill Davis Gets a Social Security Card"; (5) Colored Comic Book"Smashup at Big Rock."

Several private organizations, religious and humanitarian, as well as several governmental agencies are cooperating with the Bureau in the attempt to help migrants understand social security. The greatest assistance has probably come from the Migrant Ministry of the National Council of Churches of Christ, and the Farm Placement Service, Bureau of Employment Security, Department of Labor. Other cooperating agencies, to mention only a few, were: The National Lutheran Council, National Council of Catholic Women, New York Governor's Committee on Migratory Labor, the President's Committee on Migratory Labor, and the Committee for Rural Development Program. Informational material on the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance for the direct use of this committee was prepared and released by the Bureau under the title, "How OASI Benefits Your Community, Rural Resource Leaflet No. 4."

The Bureau, through its field organization, is attempting to identify crew leaders and to develop a mail and personal contact program to inform them of their responsibility for reporting and paying the social security taxes on their employees. The field and central office staff also have participated, in some instances as sectional leaders and reporters, in local and regional conferences on migrant labor.

The Bureau activities with migrant farm workers do not constitute a separate budget item. Neither legislation nor special appropriation are necessary to continue these activities.

Bureau of Public Assistance

Under the public assistance titles of the Social Security Act, grants-in-aid are made to the States to assist the States in providing assistance and other services to the needy aged, dependent children, the needy blind, and the permanently and totally disabled. The staff of the Bureau of Public Assistance gives consultation and technical assistance to the States to aid the States in the administration of these categorical programs.

A migrant is frequently denied public assistance because of State or local residence laws. This is particularly true of general assistance for which there is

no Federal grant-in-aid. In the State-Federal categorical assistance programs, the Federal law does not require the States to have as a condition of eligibility, a residence requirement. The law places a limit on the length of residence a State may require but cannot under Federal law prohibit the State from establishing requirements up to the State maximum. Since general assistance is financed wholly from State or local funds, requirements for eligibility under this program are a matter of State or local decision.

The Bureau of Public Assistance furnishes consultation to the States, and also to voluntary organizations, on technical aspects of residence, the complex costly factors of administration of such requirements, and the steps involved in deleting or minimizing residence requirements. The Bureau has also given technical assistance to and has cooperated with the Council of State Governments in its effort to promote interstate compacts on residence. Such compacts, if enacted, would enable any persons without State residence, such as migrant workers, to receive public assistance. The Bureau has also cooperated with the Committee on Residence of the National Social Welfare Assembly. This committee, representing a number of voluntary national agencies in the health and welfare field, is reviewing progress that has been made in connection with the elimination of residence requirements.

During the past year the Bureau of Public Assistance has cooperated in developing informational material and in conferences related to discussion of problems of migrant workers in addition to the continuous program of consultation to the State agencies. The regional staff of the Bureau have continued active participation in programs in the States and of a regional nature relating to migrants.

The Children's Bureau

Broadly stated, there are four ways in which the Children's Bureau operates to carry out its designated functions: (1) assembling of facts needed to keep the country informed about matters affecting the well-being of children; (2) development of standards and guides that will be effective in advancing the wholesome development of children and in preventing and treating the ill effects of adverse conditions; (3) giving technical assistance to citizens and to voluntary and public agencies in improving the condition of children; and (4) administering the grant-in-aid funds that the Federal Government appropriates each year to assist the States in building the health and welfare of their children.

Health services-services for mothers and children. In the health programs it has been possible to make special grants of maternal and child health funds for demonstration projects. Florida, with such a grant, followed a group of migrant families through a year's cycle to learn more about their special health problems. The report of this study was published in 1957 by the Florida State Board of Health under the title, "They Follow The Sun."

A current project, financed since August 1956 by special grant funds from the Children's Bureau, for the care of migrant mothers and children in Palm Beach and Collier Counties, Fla., had the advantage of this basic information on migrants' health and ways of living and a realistic and useful service is being supplied to migrants in this area.

Colorado is in its fourth year of a special project for care of migrant mothers and children. In a number of counties the funds have provided additional staff to the local health departments so that more services could be supplied in areas to which migrants come.

To some of these projects, the Public Health Service has contributed through loan of personnel, and the State and local health departments have shared the cost and have carried the planning and administration.

Child welfare services.-Under title V, part 3, of the Social Security Act, Federal child welfare services funds are available to State public welfare agencies for extending and strengthening their State and local child welfare programs. Each State determines how its funds will be used within the broad provisions of the act. Counseling services on children's needs and problems are given to migrant children as to other children where there are local child welfare workers. Some States have used Federal funds to help operate or staff day care centers; e.g., Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania. Florida and Pennsylvania have used funds for consultant or worker staff with assigned responsibility for children in migrant families. Regional child welfare representatives work with State agencies in terms of total child welfare program needs, including the needs of migrant children.