Laws

KDE Kentucky ELLs Program Quick Guide

From the KDE “Quick Reference Guide”:

Steps:

1. Select educational approach for ELD

2. Identify potential ELL’s

3. Administer W-APT

4. Placement

5. Provide resources and staffing

6. Transition to regular program participation

7. Monitor for 2 yrs.

8. Program evaluation

Title III Limited English Proficient (LEP) & Immigrant Students District Procedures – NCLB Requirements

2

Kentucky Department of Education
2007-08
As the 2007-08 school year begins, we would like to remind you of the following expected practices for identifying and servicing English language learners (ELLs), based on federal and state regulations:

• All new enrollees to the district are administered a Home Language Survey to screen for a language background other than English. A sample Home Language Survey can be found on the ELL web page*. Multilingual language surveys are available for free via www.transact.com.

• If the answer to any of the four required Home Language Survey questions is any language other than English, students are considered to be from a non-English language background (NELB) and must be administered the WIDA ACCESS Placement Test or W-APT. The W-APT identification test is downloadable free to districts from a password protected site http://wida.us. ELL Test Administrators should contact their District Assessment Coordinators (DACs) for password information.

• A student is formally identified as LEP based on the results of the W-APT (four domains: listening, speaking, reading and writing) in conjunction with professional judgment. The results of the W-APT and the instructional plan (Program Services Plan/PSP) must be shared with the parents within the first 30 days of the school year or within two weeks of enrollment during the school year. Written documentation and/or oral interpretation should be provided to parents/guardians, to the extent practical, in a language that they can understand.

• A district or school Program Services Plan (PSP) committee (e.g., ELL and mainstream teachers/ specialists, an instructional leader, counselor, parent, student) will design a PSP for each student identified as LEP. The PSP should include the following: the reasons for identification (results of the W-APT and, when appropriate, annual language assessment), level of English proficiency, previous academic background and experience, cultural and language history, service delivery model/s for English language instruction, and all appropriate instructional and assessment accommodations and/or modifications.

• The PSP will be shared with all stakeholders involved in the ELLs academic and language education to guide placement and instruction. Administrators will ensure teachers are being prepared to implement appropriate accommodations and modifications. Educators’ professional growth plans and the school’s/district’s professional development plans may reflect teacher development needs and expected outcomes for language and academic learning of ELLs.

• The 2007-2008 Kentucky annual English language proficiency (ELP) assessment is ACCESS for ELLs™. The state will follow a scheduled testing window of January 7 – February 15, 2008. Each district must ensure that all ACCESS test administrators are certified. Each district’s DAC will ensure that testing materials have been ordered, received and returned in the required time frame and coordinate with ELL test administrators.

• Implementation of the PSP is consistently and regularly monitored for relevance and effectiveness throughout the year. Individualized accommodations are evaluated for appropriateness and revised at least once a year based on the annual ACCESS results.

• Entry, testing and accommodation/modification data must be entered into STI or Infinite Campus on all LEP students monthly and kept updated. There will no longer be a spring extract/upload of district LEP data to KDE. KDE will access this data monthly from the State database to satisfy inquiries from the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) and the KDE Office of Assessment and Accountability.

For more ELL information and resources:
 Visit the KDE home page, click on Quick Links/English Language Learning http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/Instructional+Resources/High+School/Language+Learning/English+ Language+Learning/English+Language+Learner

 Contact Shelda Hale, Title III Program Consultant – Shelda.Hale@education.ky.gov

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Laws and Mandates: Your Responsibilities

Federal: No Child Left Behind

♦ Section 3115 (g) [Supplement not supplant]

• Title III can only be used as a supplement, not as the main budget to fund a program.
• It should not be used to hire FTEs or run programs that have no other funding source.

♦ Section 3122 (a)(3)(A) [AMAOs]

• We need to show that: our ELL students are learning English better each year, an increasing percentage of them are becoming fluent each year, and that they are making AYP each year.

♦ Section 3211 (b) [Improvement plan]

• If a school fails to meet AYP for 2 consecutive years, it must develop animprovement plan to show how they will overcome said failure.

♦ Section 3215 [Capacity building]

• The district and schools cannot count on continued financial support for ESLprograms. We should plan how to fund ESL programs with existing funds or find funding through the ICSD Board of Education.

♦ Section 3302 (a) [Parental notification]

• The parent must be notified before the child is inducted into the ESL program. Most of what is mandated in this section is covered by sending the parent notification form provided by the district. The only thing it doesn’t cover is expected rate of transition as this will be different for each school and graduation rates for secondary education as that will be determined on a school site basis.

♦ Section 3302 (b) [Notification of failure to meet AMAOs]

• Each school must inform the parents of ELL students when they have failed to meet the Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives each year.

♦ Section 3302 (c) [Understandable parent notices]

• Schools must do their best to make parent notices understandable to the parent. Spanish translation should become a priority.

♦ Section 3302 (d) [ELL latecomers]

• The school has to notify the parents of their student’s participation in the ESLprogram within 2 weeks if they did not enroll at the beginning of the year.

♦ Section 3302 (e) [Parent participation]

• Schools should proactively reach out to the parents of ELL students to try to involve them in the academic process of their children. Schools should send notices and hold regular meetings to allow these parents a venue to have a say in their child’s education.

♦ Section 3302 (f) [Surname admission or exclusion]

• The practice of placing a student in the ESL program based on their surname isagainst the law. Neither should they be excluded from programs based solely on their surname.