The school is what many children from rural Mexico experience. No more than half will continue at a secondary school in a nearby town. There're some who can't afford it. Or they'll have to go to work. Children from Mexican villages often arrive at Kansas schools with little or no formal education.
Older children have a more difficult time.
Educators say learning a new language and the harder subjects of middle or high school is a daunting combination. Through the 1990s, more than a third of the nation's Hispanics ages 20 to 24 had not completed high school, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Kansas' dropout rate for the 1998-99 school year was 12.4 percent for Hispanics, 10.3 percent for blacks and 4.3 percent for whites. Twenty-one Kansas districts now have Hispanic enrollment of 20 percent or more, compared to 10 districts eight years ago. With Latino numbers growing, officials are gearing to address language barriers.