The Migrant Student Record Transfer System (MSRTS) machine-readable data file (MRDF) is a collection of education and health data on more than 750,000 migrant children in grades K-12 in the United States (except Hawaii), the District of Columbia, and the outlying territories of Puerto Rico and the Mariana and Marshall Islands. The active file contains approximately 425,000 records as of 1987; the remaining 325,000 records are contained in an historical file. The system started in 1970 and continuously collects data on migrant students through a nationwide network of cooperating public schools, medical facilities, migrant service organizations, migrant office coordinators in each state education agency, and a central office at the Arkansas State Department of Education (Little Rock), where the master MSRTS file is updated and maintained. As migrant students relocate with their parents, the education and health communities in the areas being moved into can obtain via MSRTS essential education and health data on the students received. This permits them to concentrate on meeting the student's needs and providing continuity of services rather than on testing and determining what those needs are. When MSRTS receives notification from an enrolling school, the student's complete record to date is forwarded to that school. The enrolling school will then add to that record during the student's tenure with that school. By definition, a migratory child is the child of a migratory agricultural worker or a migratory fisherman whose family moves across school district boundaries or from one state to another for the purpose of finding temporary or seasonal employment. Once this determination is first made and certified, a certificate of eligibility is prepared and signed by the parent/guardian, records clerk, and local superintendent. This data is transferred by computer terminal to the MSRTS data center in Arkansas, where the child is assigned a unique 8-digit numeric code and a record is initiated. In the course of time, two classes of records are generated: educational data and health data. The educational data includes such fields as: educational skills, graduation requirements, recommended courses, most recent class schedule, language for instruction, school history data, secondary school credits accrued, secondary schools attended, special education programs taken, talents, test data, etc. The medical and health data includes such fields as: immunization data, medical test results, health problems (acute and chronic), family medical history, allergies, prior health providers, etc. POPULATION: Migrant elementary/secondary school students. TYPE OF SURVEY: National Survey; Follow-up Survey. RESPONDENTS: Education and health service providers at approximately 17,000 local public schools working with migrant students. FREQUENCY OF UPDATE: Daily. YEAR OF FIRST DATA: 1970. (WTB)