\n<\/p>\n
A national coalition of educators and advocates for English learners is calling on the U.S. Department of Education to reinstate federal guidance that the Trump administration quietly rescinded in August.<\/p>\n
The National English Learner Roundtable submitted a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Sept. 12 denouncing the Trump administration\u2019s decision to rescind a 2015 Dear Colleague Letter, which outlined English learners\u2019 education rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 2015 guidance provided the framework enabling our states and schools to ensure that English learners have access to the pathways toward graduation, higher education, and the workforce\u2014contributing positively to the economy and fabric of the United States,\u201d the advocates\u2019 letter says.<\/p>\n
Though federal laws on English learners\u2019 education remain in place even after the guidance\u2019s rescission, advocates say the decision \u201csends a dangerous and misleading signal to educational agencies that enforcing the civil rights of the more than five million English learners is optional and has created uncertainty about their federal legal obligations to English learners and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked on Sept. 17 whether the Education Department would consider reinstating the guidance, press officials said in a statement that \u201cthe now rescinded 2015 Dear Colleague Letter on English-learning students was overly prescriptive and micro-managing of how states implement federal English language programs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStates have vastly different needs for this important population of students and are best equipped to determine how best to educate these students while following all applicable federal laws,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
The 2015 Dear Colleague Letter, now available online \u201cfor historical purposes only,\u201d was helpful in articulating how civil rights law, case law, and federal education policy all intersect to shape requirements for English-learner programs, said Megan Hopkins, the chair and a professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego.<\/p>\n
It also outlined how the department\u2019s office for civil rights has seen violations of students\u2019 rights and recommended how to address those most commonly cited violations, Hopkins added.<\/p>\n
Yet, Hopkins reminded state education leaders that their responsibilities to English learners and their families remain in place today.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really sort of incumbent on states to think about what do these provisions mean and how do we continue to uphold them? And that should be done irrespective of whether there\u2019s a Dear Colleague letter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The advocates\u2019 letter urging reinstatement warns that without clear federal guidance and technical assistance, states and school districts could fall into noncompliance.<\/p>\n
In an initial statement following the guidance\u2019s rescission, press officials with the Education Department said the guidance was rescinded \u201cbecause it is not aligned with administration priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Education Department press officials did not directly say whether educators can expect new updated guidance meant to replace the 2015 Dear Colleague letter.<\/p>\n
Hopkins said that, for some time, educators and researchers have urged the department to update guidance that reflects the new ways the field has been thinking about multilingualism and bilingual education. This includes how to differentiate supports for students across different proficiency levels, what staffing should look like, and clearer expectations not only for program staffing but also for aligning practices with current research.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Hopkins created a resource for state education agencies that covers the overarching obligations that states and districts have to multilingual learners and their families, highlighting the legal basis for those as well as the statutory authority and the judicial precedent for each of those requirements.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Click here to open the PDF in a new tab.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A national coalition of educators and advocates for English learners is calling on the U.S. Department of Education to reinstate federal guidance that the Trump administration quietly rescinded in August. The National English Learner Roundtable submitted a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Sept. 12 denouncing the Trump<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[5472,634,488,319,4172,567,13669,1007],"class_list":{"0":"post-22288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-advocates","9":"tag-call","10":"tag-english","11":"tag-federal","12":"tag-guidance","13":"tag-learners","14":"tag-rescinded","15":"tag-return"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}