\n<\/p>\n
Since January 2025, educators and advocates for English learners and immigrant students have raised concerns about support for these populations, even as schools\u2019 federal obligations to them remain intact.<\/p>\n
Most recently, the U.S. Department of Education notified key members of Congress about its plans to move all federal English-learner programs and duties to other agencies, thereby dissolving a stand-alone office of English language acquisition, or OELA.<\/p>\n
While English-learner programs\u2014such as the Title III funding program providing states and districts with supplemental dollars\u2014will continue, advocates worry the transition could weaken oversight and expertise. The new agencies expected to take on these duties may be understaffed and lack the years of expertise of former OELA staffers, said Montserrat Garibay, the former OELA director under President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
Experts noted that another key benefit of a stand-alone office dedicated to English learners was the opportunity for federal staffers to ensure these students\u2019 needs were discussed in broader education decisions.<\/p>\n
Any possible lapse in federal guidance on how to best serve these students could complicate states and districts\u2019 ability to meet their federal obligations and preserve students\u2019 rights. It would also complicate the goals of fulfilling President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order declaring English as the national language, experts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just sends a negative message, because now we\u2019re going to have these 5.3 million English learners who are not going to be receiving the resources that they need,\u201d Garibay said.<\/p>\n
Others say that as the federal government has symbolically stepped away from prioritizing the needs of English learners and immigrant students, it will ultimately fall to states and districts to uphold and prioritize their rights and education.<\/p>\n
At least seven states have, since Trump\u2019s reelection win, taken efforts to challenge undocumented students\u2019 right to free, public education, according to an EdWeek analysis.<\/p>\n
Review the cards below to see the ways recent federal policy changes carry implications for English learners and immigrant students.<\/p>\n
Since January 2025, educators and advocates for English learners and immigrant students have raised concerns about support for these populations, even as schools\u2019 federal obligations to them remain intact. Most recently, the U.S. Department of Education notified key members of Congress about its plans to move all federal English-learner programs and duties to other agencies,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[1867,488,319,19827,567,678],"class_list":{"0":"post-48443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-affect","9":"tag-english","10":"tag-federal","11":"tag-immigrant","12":"tag-learners","13":"tag-students"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48443","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=48443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}