ELL News Headlines

New York City, home to the nation's largest public school system, announced several measures this week aimed at protecting immigrant students and families. Among them: the city will not allow federal immigration agents into schools without signed warrants, and it will host 100 forums across the city on immigrant rights, fraud prevention, and city services available to immigrant families. The department of education, which does not collect information on students' immigration status, also will not divulge student information to immigration agents unless required by law, the city said. 

About 13 percent of New York City’s 1.1 million students are considered English learners — a group of students that can be among the toughest to serve. Last year, while the dropout rate for the city overall declined, the dropout rate among English learners jumped to 27 percent — an increase of more than 5 percentage points from the year before. But a handful of other schools across the city manage to buck that trend, providing valuable lessons for how to better serve these students.

Schools are frequently called upon to be safe havens. Caring and determined faculty, staff, and administrators do everything in their power to keep students safe, happy, and healthy while they are in school, and to send them out into the world equipped to meet its many challenges. This is why the recent executive orders pertaining to immigration, and the subsequent expanding of deportation regulations, have hit school communities particularly hard. Learn more about some librarians working to make their librarians an even more welcoming space for students around the country.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a major decision expanding the scope of students' special education rights, ruling unanimously that schools must do more than provide a "merely more than de minimis" education program to a student with a disability.

Elementary school teacher Ron Morris of Riverside, California goes a step beyond to understand his students' backgrounds. It's one way Morris incorporates the culture of his students in the classroom.

A grant program is helping refugee students travel the long emotional distance from their homes to integrate into schools and their communities in the United States. The Office of Refugee Resettlement distributes Refugee School Impact Grants to 38 states, including Washington, and helps students who recently have arrived in the country get on their feet.

As a group of five Pleasant Run Elementary School students – Elijah Goodwin, 10; Angel Herrera-Sanchez, 9; Jose Verastegui, 10; Manuel Mendez, 9; and Devilyn Bolyard, 9 – participated at a recent robotics competition in Indiana, they could hear parents from other schools making disparaging comments about their team. Nevertheless, the team, known as the Pleasant Run PantherBots, advanced to the Vex IQ State Championship, coming in first place, and qualifying for the Vex IQ World Championship in April. A GoFundMe account supporting their participation exceeded its fundraising goal by $4000 and the school has now closed the campaign, encouraging others to donate money to other robotics teams.

The City University of New York, the largest urban public university system in the United States, is moving to fundamentally rework its traditional remedial programs. Administrators hope program changes this year and in 2018 will make necessary catch-up less of a stumbling block, while ensuring that students who are in college-level classes are prepared to do the work.

Congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump's administration recently put their own stamp on the Every Student Succeeds Actt by dismantling key elements of the previous administration's work. State school leaders say the moves won't significantly influence their approach to the law, but advocacy groups will be watching closely to see how the new, more flexible policy environment affects decisions about underperforming schools and disadvantaged students.