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ImmigrationProf Blog
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Illinois Satisfies Feds on English-Language learners

By immigrationprof

Mary Ann Zehr writes for Education Week:

The civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice has announced that with the adoption of new administrative rules, the Illinois State Board of Education has satisfied a concern federal officials had that Illinois school districts weren’t providing adequate services to English-language learners.

And in the July 13 press release making that announcement, Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, states that an English-language learner in this country has the right to receive special help to learn English as long as he or she has that label.

“All English-language learner students have the right to appropriate language support services until they achieve English proficiency, and when educational agencies terminate such services prematurely, they deny these students the equal educational opportunity that federal law guarantees them,” Mr. Perez said in the press release. Click here for the rest of the column.

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