Civil+Rights+Laws+for+ELLs

source: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-el-201501.pdf



Common Civil Rights Issues Through OCR’s and DOJ’s enforcement work, the Departments have identified several areas that frequently result in noncompliance by school districts and that SEAs at times encounter while attempting to meet their Federal obligations to EL students. This letter offers guidance on these issues and explains how the Departments would evaluate whether SEAs and school districts met their shared obligations to: > In addition to the common civil rights issues discussed in this guidance with respect to EL student programs, Federal law also prohibits all forms of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, and religious discrimination against EL students. For example, among other requirements, SEAs, school districts, and schools:
 * 1) Identify and assess EL students in need of language assistance in a timely, valid, and reliable manner;
 * 2) Provide EL students with a language assistance program that is educationally sound and proven successful;
 * 3) SufficientlystaffandsupportthelanguageassistanceprogramsforELstudents;
 * 4) Ensure EL students have equal opportunities to meaningfully participate in all curricular and extracurricular activities, including the core curriculum, graduation requirements, specialized and advanced courses and programs, sports, and clubs;
 * 5) Avoid unnecessary segregation of EL students;
 * 6) Ensure that EL students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) or Section 504 are evaluated in a timely and appropriate manner for special education and disability-related services and that their language needs are considered in evaluations and delivery of services;
 * 7) Meet the needs of EL students who opt out of language assistance programs;
 * 8) Monitor and evaluate EL students in language assistance programs to ensure their progress with respect to acquiring English proficiency and grade level core content, exit EL students from language assistance programs when they are proficient in English, and monitor exited students to ensure they were not prematurely exited and that any academic deficits incurred in the language assistance program have been remedied;
 * 9) Evaluate the effectiveness of a school district’s language assistance program(s) to ensure that EL students in each program acquire English proficiency and that each program was reasonably calculated to allow EL students to attain parity of participation in the standard instructional program within a reasonable period of time; 23 and Ensure meaningful communication with LEP parents.
 * 10) This guidance also provides a non-exhaustive set of approaches that school districts may take in order to meet their civil rights obligations to EL students. In most cases, however, there is more than one way to comply with the Federal obligations outlined in this guidance.
 * Must enroll all students regardless of the students’ or their parents’ or guardians’ actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status; 24
 * Must protect students from discriminatory harassment on the basis of race, color, national origin (including EL status), sex, disability, or religion; 25
 * Must not prohibit national origin-minority group students from speaking in their primary language during the school day without an educational justification; 26 and
 * Must not retaliate, intimidate, threaten, coerce, or in any way discriminate against any individual for bringing civil rights concerns to a school’s attention or for testifying or participating in any manner in a school, OCR, or DOJ investigation or proceeding. 27
 * 1) Although these issues are outside the primary focus of this guidance, the Departments strongly encourage SEAs and school districts to review these and other non-discrimination requirements to ensure that EL students, and all students, have access to equal educational opportunities.