Early language intervention and early language support is extremely beneficial to our youngest students in order to prepare them for later success in school. Put simply, we know that more support is better than less support. Although this is always the case, this year districts will face unique difficulties given the effect of the pandemic on the identification process of Emergent Bilingual students.

First and foremost, there will be “logistical challenges due to the sheer number of students who were not screened during the pandemic and the large number of entering Pre-K or Kindergarten students” (Council of the Great City Schools, 2020, p. 13). With a greater number of new students who have never been screened for language in the school system before and the understanding that this screening necessitates the use of a lot of resources, districts are likely to seek ways to simplify the process and make it more efficient. In this way, instead of looking at each student on a case-by-case basis, there might be a tendency to batch students and determine qualification for Emergent Bilingual support based on this testing alone. Yet we know that there may be something beyond the testing and assessment that we want to consider. In particular, young students who have experienced disrupted and remote learning over the past year will have missed out on significant learning opportunities for developing their English language proficiency.

Research shows that it takes time for young students to gain English proficiency; it is not just a one year process, but instead a multi-year long journey(Slama et al., 2017). The earlier students begin this process, the better (Halle et al., 2012). With even greater need and more available resources, the time is now to really provide the early bilingual language scaffolding and support services for these students.