Longitudinal Levers for English Learners (Part III): New Mexico Adopts English Learner Disability Identification Guide    

August 22, 2024

Some Western states are beginning to scale their first-ever consistent research-based guidance to help educators make important decisions that affect whether English Learners get on and stay on trajectories that lead to success.

States are growing more sophisticated in their ability to help educators appropriately identify when English Learners should qualify to receive disability services.

Traditionally, English Learners are disproportionately represented in special education, reports Jamey Burho, formerly of the Region 13 Comprehensive Center (R13CC): “The problem is multidimensional. English Learners can be both under- and over-represented in special education, depending on factors like disability category and grade level.

The causes of this disproportionality are complex and include the marginalization that English Learners often experience, as well as the lack of valid assessments and professional development for their teachers.”

Silvia DeRuvo, a special education policy and practice expert at WestEd, adds, “The big issues are how do we tell the difference between language and disability, how do we assess language learners, and how do we write those linguistically appropriate IEP goals?

What makes this such a complex process is the need to rule out whether a student’s difficulty is due to their language acquisition or their disability. This requires looking at so many extrinsic factors—gathering data from so many sources to parse out what is likely—and then doing the evaluation.”

The good news, as experts note, is that leaders are increasingly looking at how to build out systemic support in these areas.

“State and local educational agencies are beginning to ask questions about how to consistently serve these students, and guidance is not always available,” notes Burho. “When guidance exists, there are often issues with dissemination and usage of the guidance, given that requisite professional learning is often not available.”

Educators and students across New Mexico now have an advantage. With the support of R13CC, the New Mexico Public Education Department has created the Identifying and Serving English Learner Students With Disabilities Guidance Manual, which at only 68 pages is designed to be one of the first such abbreviated yet still substantively comprehensive guides in the nation.

Because R13CC interviewed representatives from 10 districts across the state, the guide directly reflects and proactively addresses common student and educator needs. For example, DeRuvo and Burho note, it shows schools how to achieve the following:

• appropriately identify students using a nuanced assessment process that is sensitive to student culture and language. For example, the guide shows how to test in the child’s home language and in English, and it provides other assessment options that typically unearth useful data for making decisions.
• ensure that extrinsic factors—like a lack of previously adequate schooling or a lack of language proficiency—are ruled out when a child is being identified
• write IEPs that take into account student linguistic abilities, goals, and language development. The guide contains examples of linguistically appropriate goals and objectives, which are required by federal law. Whereas in the past a box on the IEP may enable planners to simply check off that “the goals are linguistically appropriate,” this guide shows several examples of how language needs must be scaffolded within the standards inside the IEP goal itself, such as including “given a graphic organizer” as part of the IEP goal.
• ensure that students receive asset-based, culturally and linguistically responsive instruction both before and after identification. The guide offers a framework of ways to concretely focus on assets.
• overcome scheduling hurdles (e.g., building master schedules around the needs of dually identified students)
• structure collaboration to optimize dually identified services across previously disparate departments. Across districts studied, R13CC found that general education, special education, and English Learner services typically operated in silos despite the fact that close coordination is necessary for students served by all three departments. R13CC authors consequently marched step by step through what they found happening in practice, mapping out activity along a timeline. The mapping led to the creation of guidance on specific processes, steps, and roles to make it possible for districts and schools to move from housing separate pieces—like the child study process, assessment process, and IEP process—into one coherent approach.
• meaningfully engage families
• learn from case studies of actual district successes cohering and improving dually identified services

“It is so important to make it possible for educators to consistently focus on dually identified student assets, because [these students] are often vulnerable to compounded marginalization,” urges Burho. “Two labels are hard for educators to look past. So, it is critical that educators design with dually identified assets in mind. And we offer tools for doing just that.”

Karen Brown, former director of multicultural services at Farmington Municipal Schools, which is featured in the guide, said, “Change requires honest conversations about the ‘why.’ Not the ‘what’ or the ‘do now.’ That’s how you adopt an improvement mindset, growth mindset, and a growth model, rather than just giving directives. The more we make sure people are on the bus, the clearer the message becomes.”

Kirsi Laine, former deputy director of language and culture for the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) and current director of the PED’s Student, School, and Family Support Bureau, notes that as we launch the guide in school year 2024/25, the “why” is the most important discussion. “Only by being inquisitive can we move beyond assumptions, truly see the child in front of us, and understand how to best serve them,” said Laine.

“My vision for the guide was to integrate it with our existing systems and processes, making it more accessible and practical for district and school staff to implement,” said Mayra Valtierrez, PED Director of Language and Culture.

“It was great working with New Mexico,” concluded DeRuvo. “They were very dedicated to the work.”

Related Resources for State and Local Educational Agencies

• REL West’s Strategies to Identify and Support English Learners With Learning Disabilities, a summary of research and practice based on a REL West 2015 review comparing 15 state guidance manuals for educators and other noteworthy resources for policymakers, administrators, and practitioners
• National Center for Systemic Improvement webinar series: TLC–Pursuing Equity at the Intersection of Language, Culture and Disability, on elevating equity in opportunity and achievement for students with disabilities or who may have disabilities and who are English Learners
• Preventing inappropriate referrals in preK–2 in California: Resourcing Supports for Young Multilingual Learners with Suspected Disabilities in California: Learning Collaborative Recommendations