ELL News Headlines

Public schools cannot discriminate against nor force undocumented families to pay tuition due to a 1982 landmark U.S. Supreme Court case known as Plyler v. Doe. In a 5-4 decision, the court held that schools are responsible for extending the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to undocumented children, and that public schools could not request citizenship documentation of students nor deprive children of an education. Yet in the decades since the ruling, state legislators and even school districts have occasionally attempted to challenge the decision by denying enrollment to students or mounting legislative efforts to collect citizenship status information from students and families.

When students feel intense emotions, it’s important to meet them where they are and use strategies that guide them toward self-regulation.

Educator Debbie Adkins writes, "As we head into the season of thanks and celebration, let’s remember the opportunity to spread a little joy. A handwritten notecard could be just the thing that brightens someone’s day."

California needs to mandate bilingual education in districts with significant numbers of English learners and invest much more to support districts to offer it, according to a new report released Thursday. The report, “Meeting its Potential: A Call and Guide for Universal Access to Bilingual Education in California” was published as part of a package of research and policy proposals on civil rights in education by the UCLA Civil Rights Project.

Derek Sandoval knew nothing about the specialized high schools or the admissions test when he began school in New York City in seventh grade after arriving with his parents from Venezuela. In early conversations about his high school options, he said school staffers steered him toward international schools, which specialize in supporting older students still learning English. Instead, Derek found out about the specialized schools in the fall of his eighth grade year after he overheard classmates talking about their test prep. He was immediately captivated. But he knew he faced long odds.

Getting parents and families actively engaged in a student’s academic performance and overall school experience can make a difference in a child’s life. But how do schools and districts best entice families, especially linguistically diverse immigrant families, to give of their time and resources? Bethzaida Sotomayor, a teacher in the English-for-speakers-of-other-languages department of the Volusia County schools in Florida, and Ana Pasarella, the director of family and community engagement at the Alvin school district in Texas, came together for an Education Week webinar on Nov. 14 to share best practices for engaging English-learner and immigrant families.

Ocean Lin, a member of Chalkbeat’s 2024-25 Student Voices Fellowship class, is a high school junior who wants to pursue a career in chemistry. In this personal essay, he writes, "The pressure could be something I, along with millions of children of immigrants, navigate our whole lives. We learn to coexist with it. Success in high school and beyond feels like a given. And working in a field that doesn’t pay well or waiting for the perfect job isn’t really an option because we want to provide lives of comfort for our parents, who never lived such lives."

Creating origami designs like dogs and houses can help elementary students better understand concepts like shapes and lines.

Books in translation are a great resource to enrich young minds and library shelves. Here, SLJ rounds up 7 recent titles for the middle grade set.

The English learner population in the United States stands at about 5.2 million students. Sixteen percent of these students also have disabilities. So, in addition to English-language instruction, they’re legally entitled to special education services.