Blueberry Harvest School

The Blueberry Harvest School (BHS) is a summer school for migrant children (ages 3-13) designed to provide students with the opportunity to attend school while they are in Maine and may be missing school days and credits in their home states. The program is open to eligible children of migrant workers in Washington County, Maine during the wild blueberry harvest and is made possible by Title I, Part C of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Maine Department of Education's Maine Migrant Education Program (Maine MEP).​

The BHS has been operating for over 30 years, ever since there was a large influx of migrant workers in Maine’s blueberry harvest in the 1970s. Migrant families travel to Maine from Mi’kmaq First Nation communities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; from “Eastern Stream” states such as Florida and Mississippi; and from within Maine, including Passamaquoddy communities in eastern Washington County and a Latino community in western Washington County. Some families complete the blueberry harvest in less than two weeks, while other families may stay for five weeks or longer.​

The goal of the BHS is to respond to the unique needs of each student through culturally responsive, project-based learning while preventing summer learning loss and compensating for school disruptions among students.