Judge asked to OK new English-learners plan for SF schools

San Francisco school officials, parents and the federal government asked a judge Wednesday to approve a plan designed to upgrade English-language instruction for more than 16,000 students who need it, over one-fourth of the district’s enrollment of 57,000.

The school district established its program for Multilingual Education in 1976, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that students classified as English learners were entitled to instruction that allowed them to overcome their language barriers and gain full access to education.

[...] parents, who inherited a lawsuit originally filed in 1970, have complained that San Francisco has missed deadlines in the 2008 plan and failed to identify all English learners, offer them the services they need, and communicate with parents in languages they understand.

A court filing signed by Ho, school district lawyers and the U.S. Justice Department, which monitors the program, said the district “has agreed to improve its identification, assessment, placement, instruction and reclassification” of English learners and to communicate better with their parents.

Christina Wong, special assistant to Superintendent Richard Carranza, said the district is providing at least 30 minutes of English-language instruction to everyone in the program, and twice that much to newcomers.

The head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Vanita Gupta, said in a statement that the district’s proposed changes were “important strides toward promoting the success of every student from the moment the child enters the district.”