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Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education Position Paper: Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education in NYC’s Public Schools Luis Tavarez Sped 3300K Dr. Yvel C. Crevecoeur The City College of New York 1

Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education Abstract The debate surrounding bilingual education in the school system has been ongoing, with some arguing that it falls under special education, while others believe it does not since it’s not under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA), which ensures free, appropriate public education tailored to individual needs. Despite the potential benefits of bilingual education, many students are often classified as having a learning disability, despite their language proficiency being enriched and their ability to use diverse words. School professionals often evaluate these students, sometimes ignoring their language proficiency, leading to incorrect classifications. These students often get recommended for special education services that they do not need only because they get inaccurately assessed by school professionals who are not properly trained to conduct these assessments. To address this issue, school professionals in NYC’s public schools should receive in- depth training on student referrals and have an English-language acquisition expert present at IEP team meetings, as well as when doing students’ pre-referrals. Additionally, school professionals should take the evaluation process seriously, ensuring that English Language Learners (ELL) students are properly assessed before referring them for bilingual special education services. By doing so, they can better support and develop the language skills of these students, ultimately contributing to their academic success. 2

Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education in NYC’s Public Schools Should students whose English is not their first language be considered students with special needs? This is a question that has been debated many times in the school system; if bilingual education falls into the special education field with some individuals being in favor since English Language Learners (ELL) students do require special accommodations to access the general education curriculum, just as students with specials needs do, while other individuals having a different opinion and believing that bilingual education and instructions fall into a completely different category than the ones already established by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) which is the legislation that ensures students with disabilities are being provided with a Free Appropriate Public Education tailored to their individual needs (IDEIA, 2004). Personally, I feel more inclined towards the belief that even though ELL students should be provided with certain accommodations to understand the lesson being presented to them, it would not be ethical to classify them as students with special needs for the sole reason of not being native English speakers. While working for the NYC Department of Education for many years, I have witnessed how many ELL students have been offered special services that were not needed only because teachers could not properly assess them based on their understanding of the English language. However, the only exception to this should be if there is a suspicion of a disability and students are recommended for an evaluation. If an evaluation is conducted by school professionals and it is determined that these ELL students need additional support, then an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) should be approved by the Special Education 3

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Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education Committee establishing other personalized accommodations for these students in addition to the ones being already provided for language (IEP, n.d.). History and Current Context of Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education Several decades ago, people with disabilities did not receive the education they needed prior to laws being established that protected these individuals’ rights. In actuality, many people were confined in inadequate circumstances in state facilities for those with intellectual impairments or mental illnesses (U.S. Department of Education). At that time, offering a residence to individuals with disabilities was considered more vital than offering a proper education. In the well-known 1954 case of Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, a precedent was established that said it was unlawful to discriminate against any group of individuals, but unfortunately, students with disabilities were excluded from those groups as they were not considered as they belonged there. In addition, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA), which was passed in the 1970s, marked a significant advancement in the education of individuals with disabilities. According to the statement, all kids with disabilities must receive "a free appropriate public education, regardless of the severity of the disability," under federal law. Before finally becoming what is currently known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990, this statute underwent several revisions and reauthorizations; for example, traumatic brain injuries and autism were added to the list of new conditions that fell under the law's purview when it was amended in 1990. IDEA also mandated that schools offered special education services to qualified children in accordance with their Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). 4

Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education Furthermore, IDEA only recognizes 13 disabilities which are: autism, deaf-blindness, deafness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairment including blindness. According to IDEA, limited English proficient children would not be included among these groups as it would be considered overidentification under Special Education Laws ( IDEIA , 2004). Background Information on Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education It is no secret that public schools in the United States of America are getting more diverse than ever with immigrants coming to this country looking for better opportunities while enriching our schools with their unique and picturesque culture. Even though these new English language learners have so much to offer to our school culture and community, sometimes they are deemed as lacking the knowledge needed to succeed academically and often get wrongly classified as having a learning disability, when in reality, most school professionals agree that bilingual students have an advantage over their monolingual counterparts because they can translanguage since their vocabulary becomes more enriched and they are capable of using more diverse words. These students are also able to use words in English as well as translated words from their native language proving that this ability is an advantage to them in school (Alvarado & Przymus, 2019). Also, as it was previously mentioned, IDEA considers it an inappropriate overidentification, or underidentification in some cases, to classify limited English-proficient children as disabled ( IDEIA , 2004). These students should be properly assessed, the same way as monolingual students, by well-trained individuals, using the most appropriate assessment instruments and in the language that students feel more comfortable with to obtain the most accurate and unbiased results (Pierangelo & Giuliani, 2023). 5

Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education Moreover, in 2003 the US Department of Education estimated that more than 3.5 million students in U.S. schools have limited English proficiency, Hispanics being the fastest-growing group (Artiles & Klinger, 2003), of course, that number has increased in subsequent years. Artiles & Klinger also pointed out how educators are concerned about the overrepresentation of these linguistically diverse students in special education and the underrepresentation of the same group in programs for the gifted and talented in schools. Since most of these students get evaluated by school professionals rather than medical professionals shortly after coming to the USA, these students’ language proficiency often gets ignored resulting in them being erroneously classified as having a learning disability, emotional disturbance, or an intellectual disability. On the other hand, this same article also gives the reader some counter-arguments about how these ELL students should in fact be referred for special education services. Researchers have found that for some school professionals, language should not be a factor that would prevent a student from achieving academic success and they “assume that the student must have an internal deficit of some kind and that classroom observations are unnecessary” (Artiles & Klinger, 2003). These school professionals also don’t investigate what the student’s home language is which would give them an idea if the student would prefer being assessed in their home/native language instead of English. Additionally, school professionals do not take the process of evaluation seriously, simply referring ELL students for bilingual special education services without taking the time to properly assess students (Carrasquillo & Rodriguez, 1997). The proposed solution that could remedy this issue is first, school professionals should be properly trained on how and when to do student referrals. Second an English-language acquisition expert, that is “knowledgeable about 6

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Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education language and cultural issues…and point out when language could be contributing to a student’s difficulties” should be present whenever the IEP team meet and when they propose a possible prereferral of an ELL student (Klinger, 2003). Lastly, the student should receive sufficient time and opportunities to master the lesson and they should also get observed, by school professionals, in and outside of the classroom, to find out if any difficulties that may emerge are due to a learning disability or a language barrier. One thing is sure, the special education referral process for culturally and linguistically diverse students is still an arduous job. It has been challenging to differentiate between disability and normal second-language learning which has caused the misclassification and erroneous placement of many ELL students in the school system; NYC’s public schools have not been the exception (Artiles & Klinger, 2003). Learner Characteristics and Academic Needs As was mentioned earlier in this paper, while working in NYC’s public schools system for over 11 years, I have noticed how many kids who recently came to this country, about 41% of these students coming from Spanish-speaking countries or having a Hispanic background (NYC DOE), have been placed either in self-contained classrooms along with students with special needs, or simply given an IEP which included services that the students did not need such as meeting with the school’s speech therapist or accommodations for state exams aside from being assessed in their native language if they feel more comfortable. These misclassifications of ELL students have caused them to feel like they have a learning disability that is nonexistent when in fact these students just need time and extra support to learn the English language. Being classified as having a disability can also have some negative impact on the student’s self- confidence which will affect them academically because they will see how teachers and other school staff will treat them according to the classification that was assigned to them by the IEP 7

Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education team. Their peer interaction will also suffer from this classification because if ELL students are constantly pulled out of the classroom to receive bilingual support for example, this will keep them from interacting more with general education students and they will also feel segregated from them. Even though the counter-arguments state that ELL students should receive extra support to allow them to access the general education curriculum in the least restrictive environment (LRE), school professionals must make sure that some factors are taken into consideration when assessing ELL students (IDEIA, 2004). For example, they must ask what language students feel more comfortable with when testing; this will allow them to differentiate when a student can’t read because they don’t understand the language from a learning disability being present. Working with Learners with Exceptional Needs and Their Families Limited English-proficient students, especially those who are classified as students with exceptional learning needs (ELNs), should always receive the appropriate support they need according to their IEP if they have one. The families of these students with ELNs play a very important role in these students’ academic success because their input is vital for any decision- making regarding support for their child. Parents must always be included as very important members of the IEP team because, at the end of the day, they will decide what they consider is best for their child, regardless of the language that these parents speak; translation should always be available for them to help them engage in the conversation. I believe that most of the issues with ELL students being referred for special education services without needing them would be prevented if parents were more involved, advocating for their children, and looking for other professional opinions to appeal any decision made by school professionals that could do more harm than good for the student. 8

Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education If ELL students are classified as learners with exceptional needs, these students’ families should also be familiarized with the goals set for them in their IEP so they, along with school educators, can provide the support needed by these students to accomplish these goals by the time they graduate high school. In short, parents’ involvement will always play an important factor in a child’s academic success. Conclusion English Language Learners (ELL) students should not be referred for special education services on the sole basis that they do not understand the English language, especially if they just recently came to this country. These students should be properly assessed, in the language they feel more comfortable with, in order to get the most accurate results. School professionals should also be properly trained to conduct these assessments, and they must have background knowledge of the language and cultural influences of the students being assessed to avoid any bias that may influence their results and may lead to the students being unnecessarily referred for special education services which at the end of the day will do more harm than good. In order to prevent ELL students from being overidentified as having exceptional learning needs (ELNs), school professionals in NYC’s public schools should be better trained regarding the pre-referral process on how and when it should come into play. Parents should also remain actively involved in any decision involving ELL students to make sure that unnecessary services and classifications are being applied to their child. ELL students, realistically speaking, need extra support in order to help them catch up with their English-speaking counterparts, but these services do not have to be necessarily provided by special education specialists. These special education services should instead be reserved for ELNs students who really need them when proven that a type of learning disability is present after being evaluated by school 9

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Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education professionals. Finally, in our school system, there should be a clear distinction between what is considered special education services and what is extra support for a student whose English is not their first language. 10

Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education References Carrasquillo, A. L., & Rodriguez, J. (1997). Hispanic limited english-proficient students with disabilities. Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 8(3), 167 – 174. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ561069 DOE Data at a Glance. (2018). Retrieved from NYC Department of Education website: https://www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/reports/doe-data-at-a-glance H.R.1350 - 108th Congress (2003-2004): Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 . (2019). Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/bill/108th-congress/house-bill/1350 IDEA. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ncld.org/get-involved/learn-the-law/idea Individualized Education Program (IEP). (n.d.). New York State Education Department. Retrieved from https://www.nysed.gov/special-education/individualized-education- program-iep Klingner, J. K., & Artiles, A. J. (2003). When should bilingual students be in special education. Educational Leadership , 61 (2), 66–71. https://nepc.colorado.edu/sites/default/files/Report_5.pdf 11

Bilingual Students and Their Relation to Special Education NICHCY. (2012) Categories of Disability Under IDEA. Retrieved from https://www.parentcenterhub.org/wp-content/uploads/repo_items/gr3.pdf Pierangelo, R., & Giuliani, G. (2022). Assessment in special education: A Practical Approach . Pearson. Przymus, S., & Alvarado, M. (2019). Advancing bilingual special education: Translanguaging in content-based story retells for distinguishing language difference from disability. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners , 19(1), 23–43 . https://exceptionalchildren.org Title I-Amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Title II-National Center for Special Education Research. Title III-Miscellaneous Provisions (p. 130). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.congress.gov/108/plaws/publ446/PLAW-108publ446.pdf U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. “History: Twenty-Five Years of Progress in Educating Children with Disabilities Through IDEA.” Retrieved from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/idea-history.pdf 12

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