This ERIC digest describes the lives of migrant families, migrant students' education, and migrant parents' involvement in their children's education. Migrant families tend to travel along well-established geographic routes which can be identified as the East Coast Stream, the Mid-Continent Stream, and the Western Stream. In 1986, the average annual income for migrant farmworkers was less than $6,500. In addition to poverty, living and working conditions pose serious health problems for migrant families. Families migrate for economic reasons, and migration occurs in both interstate and intrastate patterns. The level of child maltreatment is much higher among migrant families than among the general population, and intrastate migrant families have a higher incidence than interstate migrant families. Younger children and children from single-parent families also have a higher probability of being maltreated. Migrant students have the lowest graduation rate of any population group in the public schools. High risk characteristics of migrant students include low socioeconomic status, high levels of mobility, low levels of English language skills, and higher levels of handicapping conditions. Parental involvement in education increases student achievement. Migrant parents of high achievers hold positive attitudes toward school, while parents of low achievers hold more negative attitudes. By understanding migrant family lives and communicating with parents, educators can have a profound effect on migrant students' education. (KS)