Home Language Survey (HLS)

California Education Code, Sections 313 and 60810 contain legal requirements which direct schools to determine the language(s) spoken in the home of each student. 

When a student enters into a California school for the first time, their parents or guardians are to be administered a Home Language Survey (HLS) as part of the enrollment process.  The responses on the HLS determines whether a student is English only (EO) or will be assessed for English Language Proficiency (ELP) using the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC).

An HLS includes four questions:

1. Which language did your child learn when they first began to talk? 

2. Which language does your child most frequently speak at home? 

3. Which language do you (the parents and guardians most frequently use when speaking with your child? 

4. Which language is most often spoken by adults in the home? (parents, guardians, grandparents, or any other adults) 

For answers other than English to questions 1, 2, and/or 3, the student is to be assessed using the initial ELPAC within the first 30 days of school.  For an answer other than English to question 4 only, the LEA may choose whether to classify the student as English Only (EO) or initially assess for ELP using the ELPAC.

Key Points: 

• The decision whether to assess for ELP using the initial ELPAC is a locally made, however it is not on a "case-by-case" basis.  That decision should be consistent, as well as documented and outlined in an LEAs EL Master Plan or board adopted processes regarding English Learners.

• TK students, which will be the bulk of an LEA's initial enrollments, are given the HLS.  However, for students whose responses are a language other than English, they are not assessed for ELP using the initial ELPAC until Kindergarten.  In the meantime, their English Language status is TBD and teachers and staff should use the responses on the HLS, as well as other information, to guide instruction and best practices to meet the needs of the student.

Links and Resources:

• Multilingual Learners - Survey, Assessments, Programs, and Reclassification

• English Learner Forms (including translations of the Home Language Survey)