ELL News Headlines

Many of the nation’s more than 5 million English learners enroll in elementary schools with educators hoping the students will reclassify out of language-development services by middle school. But many carry the English-learner label well into middle and high school, when class schedules become more complex and graduation requirements take priority.

This year’s Batchelder Award for children’s literature in translation went to Croco, a picture book by Mexican author and illustrator Azul López, published by Tapioca Stories. This success was compounded for Tapioca’s publishing director Yael Berstein when she realized it was the first Latin American title to win the award in its 58-year history.

English learners who understand an academic concept may still struggle to articulate their understanding, and these scaffolds can help.

Nationally, about 1 in 5 children in the United States speaks a language other than English at home, according to the Century Foundation, a nonprofit organization. Most of those children—about three-quarters—speak Spanish, the nonprofit reported. But tens of thousands of public school students speak other languages at home, including Arabic, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Russian, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In recent years, schools have turned to a variety of AI-powered tools to help translate materials into families’ home languages.

A flurry of immigration enforcement activity in California’s second-largest city has sparked outrage among educators and local officials who have questioned the presence of federal agents several feet from school doorsteps. The ICE surge, they say, has sown fear and panic among families, and kept some students home from school.

The Trump administration has been pursuing a quiet immigration crackdown strategy: limiting access to health care and public services. The American Academy of Pediatrics is sounding the alarm about the impact on children.

Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools District (MCPS) reinstated 54 employees who were impacted by federal changes to temporary protected status (TPS) for El Salvador, but warned that the reinstatement may not be permanent due to rapidly changing federal action, according to a Monday statement from MCPS to impacted employees.  

Family engagement is a critical part of education, and engaging with parents or guardians of English learners offers unique challenges and opportunities.

Latine Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15 to October 15. Here are some recently published books, from bilingual board books and middle grade titles to Spanish-language picture book biographies and graphic novel memoirs.