The AP (10/2, Contreras) reported, "Federal officials and the Boston Public Schools have reached an agreement over allegations that the school district violated federal law by not providing English instruction to students with a limited grasp of the language, the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday. Under the agreement, Boston Public Schools agreed to assess the English proficiency of an estimated 7,000 students who were not previously tested in how well they understand, speak, read and write English." According to the AP, "In a statement Friday, the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and [ED]'s Office for Civil Rights said that since 2003, Boston Public Schools had failed to properly identify and adequately serve thousands of English language learners under federal law."
The Boston Globe (10/2, Vaznis) added that "Boston schools did not admit to any wrongdoing in signing the agreement, which aims to remedy the problems without going to court. But the Justice Department reserves the right to bring legal action against the school district if it fails to implement the agreement and will conduct a comprehensive review this fall of all the district's programs for English-language learners."
Education Week (10/1, Zehr) added that the "44-page agreement requires that, starting this school year, all of Boston's 135 schools provide services to English-language learners, even if the schools don't have large numbers of such students, something that wasn't happening before. It also includes a mandate that the district offer 'compensatory services' to students who previously had been deemed as 'opting out' of language services that they were entitled to receive under federal law."
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