Evaluating ELLs for Special Needs a Challenge

Evaluating ELLs for Special Needs a Challenge

Speech-language pathologist Timothy Tipton, left, trains San Diego educators, with the use of a projector, on new techniques for identifying students in need of special education. Experts hope the new process will help reduce lopsided referral rates of English-learners to special education.
—Sandy Huffaker/Education Week
By Lesli A. Maxwell and Nirvi Shah
Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.

A kindergarten teacher in a San Diego public school last fall referred six of her students—all English-language learners—for evaluation for special education. All of them, as it turned out, needed eyeglasses; one needed a hearing aid. None needed to be placed in special education.

A few years ago, such simple explanations for the students' academic difficulties might not have been picked up so early. But last year, the 132,000-student San Diego district—with a history of lopsided referrals of English-learners to special education—created a step-by-step process to make sure every explanation and intervention for a child's lagging academic performance had been examined before assigning a placement in special education.

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