American teachers and especially those in California are sensitive to needs of migrant children. We're also aware of the political battles fought in the U.S. over the costs and benefits associated with educating the children of illegal/undocumented workers. You may be aware of the fuzzy status of domestic migrants in China. In some places, the children of migrant laborers are permitted to enter ordinary schools. In some places special schools have been pulled together by the migrants themselves, by NGOs, and by local governments.

Participants in our 2010 study tour visited an NGO-sponsored school in a factory district on the outskirts of Beijing. This school was created by Prof. Zheng Hong and gets considerable support from companies and individuals.

It seems, though, that migrant schools are being closed down. The reason given is failure to meet certain safety standards. This is not an unrealistic worry as the thousands of schoolchildren killed in the 2008 quake may have been partly the victims of shoddy construction and inept or corrupt government inspection. But it may also be a housecleaning at a time of economic uncertainty.

Here's an English language article from the Chinese publication Caixin:
http://english.caing.com/englishNews.jsp?id=100289584&time=2011-08-10&cl=111&page=all

Some may also be interested in the short documentary, Invisible Wall, produced in 2009 by two student filmmakers (one from USC, the other from the Communication University of China). It deals with the difficult decision faced by a migrant family. The family is doing well, running a bathhouse in a migrant village in Beijing. But the daughter has just completed middle school and because she is not a formal Beijing resident (她没有北京户口) cannot continue in Beijing schools.
http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=1928 (on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/USChinaInstitute#p/c/30FD5F0382C99E98/4/vvJg8d0TKhk

(Other films in the series are available here: http://china.usc.edu/showarticle.aspx?articleID=1925).

(Here's a 2009 NPR story on Dandelion's nutrition program: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104753329)