Transfer Student & Screener
English Language Proficiency Screening of Transfer Students from WIDA Consortium States
When a student transfers into a district from another WIDA district or state (this includes Department of Defense schools), check the official records to determine identification/placement status and any services the student may have received. If the approved documentation (WIDA MODEL for Kindergarten, WIDA MODEL K-12, WIDA Screener for Kindergarten, WIDA Screener, ACCESS for ELLs, or Alternate ACCESS for ELLs) shows that the student received services within the past year, place the student in the program according to their most recent score results.
In some cases, a student from another WIDA district or state may have documentation of services from an identification/placement assessment that is not an approved WIDA assessment. Therefore, the school/district will need to screen the student using the appropriate South Carolina WIDA identification assessment to place the student in those cases.
If there is documentation from an approved WIDA identification screener supporting that the student is not eligible for services, South Carolina will accept those scores.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY SCREENING OF TRANSFER STUDENTS FROM NON-WIDA CONSORTIUM STATES
When a student transfers into the district from a non-WIDA consortium district or state, and the HLS section of the ES indicates a language other than English, this student must participate in identification screening to determine their ML status.
South Carolina does not accept not-eligible identification scores from non-WIDA states. When districts have questions or are unsure of proper screening procedures, especially student transfers, please contact the district or state Title III coordinator.
Additional screening guidelines can be found on the SCDE ESEA, Title III Multilingual Learner and Immigrant Children and Youth Program website.