Feds Fire Shot Across California Bow: Schools Must Educate English Learners

LA SCHOOLS-Federal justice and education officials sent school agencies across the nation a stern message on Wednesday, reminding them that they are mandated to adequately educate students whose first language isn’t English. 

The shot across the bow resounded loudly in California, home to more than a fifth of the nation's 5 million public school students categorized as English learners. 

Under federal law, schools must identify students who need English language support in a timely fashion, provide qualified teachers, avoid unnecessary segregation of the students, and give parents information about services in their own languages. 

Officials said demographics prompted them to issue guidelines for agencies to meet their legal obligations to English learners: four out of five states have seen increases in their English learner student populations.   

However, failure by schools to provide all students with required language and academic services also pushed officials to issue what amounted to a warning from both the education and justice departments. 

“Since fiscal year 2009, my office has received more than 475 complaints raising civil rights issues about English language learners or their parents," said Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, during a media conference call.

She said 60 public school agencies across the country are currently under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights to determine if they broke the law on providing English learner services. 

Thirteen of the agencies under scrutiny are in California, including school districts in Pasadena, Pomona, Ontario, Oxnard, Temecula, and San Bernardino. 

Los Angeles Unified School District had been one of the districts investigated for its failure to properly serve all English learner students. In 2011, federal officials entered into an agreement with the school district to carry out improvements.   

(Adolfo Guzman-Lopez is an education reporter for KPCC radio… where this report was first posted.)

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CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 3

Pub: Jan 9, 2015