ESL Court Cases

Separate but equal public facilities, including school systems, ARE constitutional.

Reversed Plessy v Ferguson It was not fair to have black and white students separated in different schools. Segregation is unequal

States may not pass laws that attempt to prevent communities from offering private language classes outside of the regular school system. makes it clear that the 14th amendment provides protection for language minorities

Same facilities were not enough.Granted children an opportunity to a "meaningful education", regardless of their language background. language-minority students must be ensured access to the same curriculum provided to their English-speaking peers

Specified proper approaches, methods, and procedures for:

1. identifying and evaluating national-origin minority students' English language skills
2. determining appropriate instructional treatments
3. deciding when LEP students were ready for mainstream classes
4. determining the professional standards to be met by teachers of language-minority children

Required to provide LEP students special English as a second language instruction as well as academic subject-matter instruction through the students' strongest language until the students achieved proficiency in English.

Mandates that programs for language-minority students must be:

1. based on a sound educational theory
2. implemented effectively with sufficient resources and personnel
   1. evaluated to determine whether they are effective in helping students overcome language barriers.

Rights for undocumented immigrant students

Separate but Equal is constitutional