English Language Acquisition Plans (ELAP)

What is it?

This is a plan prepared by the ELAP committee of each student that receives ELD services. The ELAP committees consist of: An ELD teacher, a Special Education teacher, and Content teachers.

Content teachers: Provide input and feedback on the students' linguistic performance in their classroom. Implements the plan in their classrooms as stated by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the Blueprint for Maryland's Future Act.
ELD teacher: Prepares the plan with the feedback from content teachers and personal observations.
Special Education teacher: If a student has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or a 504 Plan, these accommodation need to be reflected in the ELAP. IEP and 504 consideration must also be implemented by law.

This plan must be prepared/reviewed within the first 45 days of each school year, or after the first 45 days of school since the student's arrival.

ELD teachers must share these plans with their 'caseload' teachers as it is a legal document and accommodations are to be provided on a daily basis (as with IEPs and 504s)!

WIDA Approach

WIDA is committed to providing assessments that best measure academic English language proficiency. WIDA recognizes that all students must be assessed in a valid and reliable manner in order to gain meaningful results from WIDA's English language proficiency assessment suite. This includes, to the extent practicable, students with disabilities.

WIDA's approach to assessment is rooted in the understanding that:

MLs have diverse learning needs and styles
All MLs are capable of making progress toward English language proficiency
MLs must acquire discipline-specific language practices that enable them to interpret and produce language to effectively collaborate on content-related, grade-appropriate tasks

WIDA provides guidelines for how to best support students taking ACCESS for ELLs through the Accessibility and Accommodations Supplement. WIDA developed the supplement to help educators understand and use the test administration considerations, universal tools, and accommodations for individual MLs in order to produce valid assessment results.

WIDA guidelines do not replace or amend state specific policies of English language proficiency tests. Please refer to your state’s page for details.

WIDA Framework

WIDA designed its accessibility and accommodation framework to ensure:

Application of effective linguistic scaffolding and Universal Design principals to the development of test items
Availability of flexible administrative considerations and universal tools for all students
Purposeful design and delivery of accommodations for students with disabilities

Modifications are not allowed on language proficiency testing, as they change what the test measures.

The Gist of Accommodations

- All MLs in grades K–12 must have a current ELAP Accommodations Document in the cumulative folder. If no accommodations are necessary, the document must be marked “No Accommodations” and filed in the cumulative folder. A new form must be completed and filed annually.
- R-MLs students must have a current R-MLs Personal Needs Profile (PNP) Document in the cumulative folder. A new form must be completed and filed annually.
- ELAP forms must be signed by the Principal and the ELD teacher. The forms must be presented to the parent and an attempt made to obtain the parent’s signature. If a parent signature is not obtained, the form may be filed in the cumulative folder with the dates that the parents were contacted.
- Accommodations must be offered on a regular basis during classroom instruction and assessment.
- Accommodations are determined during the ELAP Meeting process. These accommodations must be assigned individually to each ML, not to a group of MLs based on common characteristics.

State Testing Excemption (AP5111.3)

MLs enrolled in their first year of schooling in the United States (Newcomers) are exempted from state-mandated assessments for their first year.

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