Assessing English Learners when Conducting Comprehensive Special Education EvaluationsBy Sharon Madsen, IDEA Complaint and Compliance Consultant, Special Education Team and Tanya Morin, Bilingual-Bicultural Education Consultant, Teaching and Learning Team According to new federal data (U.S. Department of Education, 2023), about 15.5 percent of English Learner (EL) students nationwide were identified as having a disability during the 2019-20 school year. This number is slightly higher than the percentage of all students in the U.S. receiving the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) services for the same time frame, which was 14 percent (ibid.). While the percentage of ELs with identified disabilities varies from state to state, Wisconsin-specific data suggests that EL students in the state are being overidentified for special education services. During the 2022-23 school year, approximately 17.7 percent of Wisconsin ELs were identified as having a disability, as compared to 14.9 percent of all students. The overrepresentation of ELs in special education in our state can be read as an indicator of the complexities that educators face when determining whether an EL student has a disability. Indeed, research has shown that, when an elementary level EL student experiences learning challenges, educators find it difficult to know whether it is due to language proficiency or to a disability (Artiles & Kingner, 2006). It is important for school leaders and other educators to be aware of the many factors involved when assessing EL students for a potential disability and to ensure that the process is approached with care. Taking care when evaluating ELs for special education services does not mean delaying referral until a student is fully English proficient. Nor does it mean assuming that all learning issues ELs face are due to emerging proficiency in English and therefore exclusionary factors must apply. Rather, Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams must be intentional about gathering and analyzing data that will help them determine whether an EL student’s difficulty with academic and functional skills are the result of secondary language acquisition, a disability, a combination of these two factors, or other ecological factors. To assist IEP teams in this process, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has developed a new resource, called “Assessing English Learners when Conducting Comprehensive Special Education Evaluations,” which grew out of a collaboration between the agency’s Special Education and Multilingual Learners teams. The recommendations included in the document reflect what is known about best practices in both of those fields and were reviewed by an array of constituent groups, including English as a Second Language (ESL) or bilingual teachers and leaders, special education teachers, special education directors, school psychologists, and representatives from institutes of higher education. “Assessing English Learners when Conducting Comprehensive Special Education Evaluations” is not an assessment tool in and of itself, but rather a set of considerations and recommendations for IEP teams to draw on when gathering and analyzing student information for special education evaluations. The resource contains three main sections:
Additional resources are referenced and linked throughout the document, including tools, articles, and guidance documents from WIDA, The United States Department of Education, The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, and several other reputable organizations. For more information on this topic, please visit DPI’s webpage Special Education and Multilingual Learners. References Klingner, J., & Artiles, A. J. (2006). English Language Learners struggling to learn to read: Emergent scholarship on linguistic differences and learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39, 99-156; 386-398. U.S. Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition (2023). The Biennial Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Title III State Formula Grant Program: School Years 2018–2020. https://ncela.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/OELABiennialReportSYs2018-20c-508.pdf |