Designed to construct a frame of reference and to encourage attitudes that facilitate productive dialogue during and after the conference, this address gives an overview of American mobility, re-examines the problem of managing the education of the migrant/mobile student, explains the structure of the National Policy Workshop on Education for Migrant Secondary Students, and presents a primary challenge of American education. After a comparison between the impact of mobile families upon the real estate industry and the impact of student transfers on local school systems, the paper discusses the unrealistic expectations concerning the parent role in student transfers, the limitations which lack of information puts on the school's ability to provide services, the disruptive impact on instructional continuity caused by the mobility factor, the need for a computerized communications network to give each school system access to information on transfer and migrant students, and the importance of the Migrant Student Record Transfer System. The major areas to be covered by the workshops and the role of panel moderators are described. The address concludes by presenting the construction of a modern electronic system to provide educational continuity for mobile students as the primary challenge of American education. (CM)