English Language Learners (ELL)

ELL and the IEP

There are several elements of the IEP that require particular attention for students learning English as another language:

  • The Notice of Meeting should:

      • Address whether an interpreter will attend the meeting

      • Be provided in the primary language of the parent

  • The IEP should include:

      • Linguistically appropriate goals, programs, and services

      • An indication of whether the student's language needs will be met through general and/or special education services

      • Most recent ELPAC or Alternate ELPAC scores

      • Any necessary accommodations or modifications for the ELPAC or Alternative ELPAC.

      • Details regarding the need for primary language support and the language of instruction

  • The team must allow parents with limited English proficiency to meaningfully participate in the IEP meeting, providing free interpretation and translation services, as appropriate.

Designing Accommodations for ELLs

The selection of and evaluation of accommodations for dually identified students who are students with disabilities who are also ELLs, must involve collaboration among educational specialists, the classroom teacher, teachers providing instruction in ELD, families, and the student.

The following five major conditions are important to consider in selecting accommodations for ELLs and students with disabilities (Abedi and Ewers 2013):

1. Effectiveness: An accommodation must be effective in making an assessment more accessible to the recipients.

2. Validity: An accommodation should not alter the focal construct, i.e., the outcomes of accommodated and non-accommodated assessments should be comparable.

3. Differential Impact: An accommodation should be sensitive to student’s background characteristics, and their academic standing, i.e., one size may not fit all.

4. Relevance: An accommodation should be appropriate for the recipients.

5. Feasibility: An accommodation must be logistically feasible to implement in the assessment setting.

Supporting EL Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Teachers of students with ASD need to understand how these difficulties manifest themselves in the classroom in relation to the standards as well as how to provide instruction for these students to comprehend and write narratives related to the task at hand. Although some students with ASD are able to answer questions such as who, what, and where, they often struggle answering questions asking how and why. These issues become progressively more challenging as the demands to integrate information for various purposes increases at the secondary level.

Teachers can find supports to enhance comprehension and ameliorate potentially anxious and stressful experiences by incorporating cognitive behavioral strategies identified by the National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders. Among important considerations are the following:

    • Physically positioning oneself for face-to-face interactions and establishing attention

    • Providing verbal models for specific tasks

    • Responding to students’ verbal and nonverbal initiations

    • Providing meaningful verbal feedback

    • Expanding students’ utterances

    • Ensuring students have the prerequisite skills for a task

    • Breaking down tasks into manageable components

    • Knowing and using what students find motivating

    • Ensuring the use of appropriately challenging and interesting tasks

Supporting EL Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

Students with significant cognitive disabilities should receive access to grade level curriculum through instruction in their Least Restrictive Environment that addresses IEP academic goals aligned to the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy and other content standards.

This is in addition to instruction in functional and life skills in accordance with their IEP. In order for this to occur, it is critical that students with significant cognitive disabilities receive opportunities to learn and to demonstrate learning through whatever communication, assistive technologies, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices, or other access tools are necessary and routinely used by the students during instruction.

Students who encompass the category of students with significant cognitive disabilities include a broad range of learners, with diverse disabilities and communication needs; therefore, there is no one size fits all model or single set of instructional strategies. However, the elements of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) offer guidelines and considerations for instruction reinforcing the use of multiple means of representation and demonstration. Further, the speaking and listening standards throughout the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy offer multiple opportunities to address how students with significant cognitive disabilities will both receive and demonstrate knowledge.