The organizational and fiscal implications of transient student populations

STUDENT TRANSIENCY: DEFINING THE ISSUES Student transiency is a particularly complex issue in education. This chapter offers an introduction to historical research about transiency, and then discusses how transiency creates distinct student, school, and related organizational impacts. Student transiency refers to the repeated nonpromotional and unscheduled movement of students from one school or school district to another. Authors typically use the term “student mobility” to refer to such school changes, but this chapter uses “transiency” to widen attention to the multidimensional nature of school changes and stress the complexity of making effective policy choices in response to such student movements. In short, highly transient students tend to come from low-income families, migrant or limited-English-proficiency backgrounds, and/or single-parent families (Ashby, 2010; Nevárez-La Torre, 2011; Rumberger, 2011; Rumberger, Larson, Ream, & Palardy, 1999). The lives of transient children are socially and academically disrupted through these frequent and unpredictable school and residence changes (Grigg, 2012; Herbers, 2013). And these movements create direct and indirect challenges or costs in education.