At the behest of the federal government, the Arizona education department will take steps to correct civil rights violations that have affected thousands of K-12 English-language learners.
The U.S. departments of Justice and Education found that, since the 2012-13 school year, the state has failed to properly identify English-learners and prematurely labeled others as fluent in English, cutting off their access to language-assistance programs.
The settlement requires the state to raise its standards for the reading and writing tests it uses to determine English proficiency. It must also ensure that districts offer language-support services to thousands of students who were prematurely moved out of programs or incorrectly identified as English proficient.
