Gaston County Schools voluntarily agreed to make changes in its alternative language program after a handful of families filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights last school year.
Here’s what the district agreed to do:
- Consult with the Southeastern Equity Center to develop a plan to evaluate the effectiveness of its English as a second language program.
- Submit a plan to evaluate its ESL program to the Office of Civil Rights. The plan should make sure students are participating enough to achieve English proficiency. It should include an assessment of student progress and whether there are enough teachers to meet student needs. Within four weeks of the Office of Civil Rights’ review of the plan, the district should continue with the evaluation and provide a final report to the Office of Civil Rights for review. The district has 45 days to make changes if the Office of Civil Rights requests them.
- Review the course schedules of all English-language learners to make sure they are getting enough direct instruction and adjust schedules as needed. The district will send the Office of Civil Rights copies of course schedules and other information for all of its English-language learners.
- Conduct individualized tests on all English-language learners who were in the ESL program during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years. The district will develop individual education plans for students who did not achieve passing scores. The school system will provide the Office of Civil Rights with a list of students and whether each student requires an individual plan. If plans are required, the school system will implement the plans and provide the Office of Civil Rights with documentation.
- Send a plan to the Office of Civil Rights on how it will provide qualified interpreters for parents with limited English skills. The plan should include a procedure to keep track of parents who need interpreters, a database of qualified interpreters and translators, procedures for how parents and staff members can make requests for interpretation service, a way to keep track of requests and services provided and procedures to make sure enough qualified interpreters are available. Within four weeks of the Office of Civil Rights’ review, the district will provide a copy of final procedures.
- Develop a way to identify and translate written documents routinely sent to parents. If the family speaks a language that’s less prominent or difficult to translate, the district has to make sure students and parents understand who they can contact if they need help understanding notifications. Copies of translated documents must be provided to the Office of Civil Rights.
- Provide the Office of Civil Rights a copy of a notice provided to parents with limited English skills, informing them free interpretation and translation services are available. Within 30 days, Gaston County Schools has to provide proof it distributed the notice to parents. By June 30, the district will give the Office of Civil Rights all requests for translation or interpreting services from Jan. 1 to May 30, including how the requests were met.
- Train staff members likely to interact with parents, teaching staffers to communicate effectively with parents who have limited English skills on an annual basis. The district will provide a list of employees who received training and a copy of the training materials to the Office of Civil Rights.
You can reach Amanda Memrick at 704-869-1839 and twitter.com/AmandaMemrick.