The Columbia Borough School District (CBSD) English Language Development (ELD) Program goals are to efficiently identify and assess students who have limited English proficiency, appropriately place them in ELD and classroom programs that best meet their needs, and maintain ongoing records of student progress that inform teachers on best practices for providing each student with rich academic and linguistic learning experiences to achieve their potential in educational programs and extracurricular activities, consistent with federal and state laws and regulations. Goals are further broken up into specific categories below.

Screening, Identification, and Placement

CBSD identifies potential ELs at the time of on-line enrollment, then notifies parents of the identification and programming options, and if necessary, places the ELs into an appropriate language instruction educational program. All students are screened, identified, and placed within the first thirty days of school or within fourteen days of enrollment if a student enrolls after the first day of school.

English Language Development Program Design

Procedures for identifying ELs are based on the Pennsylvania Regulations, Chapters 4 and 11 and federal law, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Educational Opportunity Act, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as amended by Every Student Succeeds Act. CBSD provides a program for each student whose dominant language is not English to facilitate the student’s achievement of English proficiency and the academic standards. CBSD plans, resources, and evaluates its Language Instruction Educational Program (LIEP).

According to the BEC, “ELs are eligible for special education services if they meet IEP eligibility criteria and, conversely, students with a disability are eligible for English language development programming if they are identified as ELs.”

Specialized services or instruction are those only provided for ELs, for example ELD pull-out classes, ELD tutoring, after school English tutoring for ELs or content classes consisting of only ELs.

Student involvement and a feeling of belonging to the school community are critical to success.