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In this study on K-12 schools in the U.S. Florida Heartland, I take a QuantCrit approach to uncover how processes of data transformation, which I call 'racial re-formation', shape the utilization and reporting of racial and ethnic representations of students. To understand actual data use at schools, I apply QuantCrit's principles on how numbers are not neutral and how categories/groups are neither 'natural' nor given. I introduce 'racial re-formation' to identify the mechanisms behind expression of the QuantCrit principles in the data. Analyses of observations demonstrate that definitions of race/ethnicity are malleable, as personnel changed reported definitions of students as they used data in school decisions. Contrast of school records with teacher-created grade-level cards shows mismatch in student race/ethnicity between multiple school measures, while comparison of state vs. school records illustrates how policy affects demographic portraits. These practices led to varying representations, especially for American Indians and other groups, though ways to improve data collection, utilization, and reporting are offered.

Structural vulnerability illuminates how social positionings shape outcomes for marginalized individuals, like migrant farmworkers, who are often Latino, indigenous, and/or undocumented. Furthering scholarship on negotiating constraints, we explore how school employees (here, Migrant Advocates) broker health care access for migrant farmworker families. Ethnographic research in central Florida showed that Advocates perform similar functions as community health workers while experiencing similar dilemmas. We propose combining medical anthropological insights with the CDC's Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model, conceptualizing schools as an important site for families' wellbeing, recognizing brokerage roles of staff, and offering new directions for migrant health scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]