English Learners with potential disabilities present a complex challenge in both the identification of potential disability and of the student’s language skills in their home language and in English. It is the responsibility of a district to correctly identify both an English Learner’s disability and their language skills in both languages and provide appropriate support in both areas. The resources on this page can support Local Educational Agencies in meeting those obligations.
Events and Opportunities
Training for Home Language Interpreters: Supporting Families Through the Special Education Process
Wisconsin DPI has partnered with WI FACETS, CESAs, school districts, and other organizations to develop a one day training for spoken home language interpreters who interpret for families at IEP meetings. The training provides increased awareness of state and federal laws, regulations, and policies related to the educational rights of students who receive special education through an IEP and who may also be English Learners. The training also provides increased knowledge of legal responsibilities and requirements related to translation and interpretation of special education, terms, concepts, tools, and resources for interpreters. Finally, the training supports improved skills to handle common ethical considerations while interpreting IEP meetings. All of the resources for the training are found on this web page.
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Resources
Resources for Families in Spanish (Temas de educación especial)
Wisconsin DPI Bilingual and English Learner Web Page
This web page from the Wisconsin DPI contains resources on a large variety of topics to support the education of bilingual and English learner students.
Assessing English Learners when Conducting Comprehensive Special Education Evaluations
The intersection of English Language Learners and Students with Disabilities requires additional considerations when conducting comprehensive special education evaluations. This resource document provides guiding questions and resources to assist IEP teams with the special education evaluation process and decision making when considering special education eligibility for students also identified as English Learners.
Wisconsin DPI E-Learning Course: Creating Safe and Healthy Environments for Immigrant and Refugee Youth
This series of four e-courses from the Wisconsin DPI will help you plan and implement practices that create welcoming environments, learning engagement, and success for immigrant and refugee students in Wisconsin schools.
Wisconsin DPI English Learner Policy Handbook: Chapter 11: English Learners with Disabilities
This chapter from the Wisconsin DPI English Learner Policy Handbook outlines legal requirements, special education evaluations, students with specific disability category needs, and a checklist for IEP teams. The full handbook is available on the Wisconsin DPI English Learner Policy Handbook web page.
English Language Proficiency Screening for Students with Potential Disabilities
Additional information for screenings that is a supplement to the DPI English Learner Policy Handbook.
Wisconsin DPI ACCESS for ELLs Accommodations and Supports
This web page provides guidance from Wisconsin DPI for alternate access for ELLs and resources.
Providing Language Assistance to Parents, Asistencia a los Padres con el Idioma
This resource outlines legal requirements for providing interpreter services to families who need an interpreter at an IEP meeting as well as requirements related to translation of IEP documents in a timely manner.
U.S. Department of Education Resources
Equal Access Elementary and Secondary Education for Students Who are English Learners with Disabilities
On November 12, 2024, the Office of Civil Rights released a report emphasizing the legal requirements for identifying and providing services for the intersectionality of students who are English Learners with disabilities. In addition to a summary of data, Title II, VI, Section 504, and IDEA regulations, the report also provides thirteen examples of practices in schools that could, depending on the facts and circumstances, violate federal civil rights laws. The report concludes with recommendations for resources to support the needs of English Learners with Disabilities.
U.S. Department of Education: English Learner Toolkit: Chapter 6: Tools and Resources for Addressing English Learners with Disabilities
From the U.S. Department of Education Office of English Language Acquisition, this chapter reviews information related to assessment and IEP development. The complete English Learner Toolkit is also available on the U.S. Department of Education website.
U.S. Department of Education Office of English Language Acquisition: English Learners with Disabilities Fact Sheet
This fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Education provides national disaggregated data from 2017-2018 relating to English Learners with Disabilities.
U.S. Department of Education: English Learners with Disabilities Infographic
This info graphic from the U.S. Department of Education contains some national data points about English learners with disabilities and presents many additional federal resources to aid in supporting English learners with disabilities.
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for English Learners: Model Demonstration Grantees
This web page presents three models, produced through projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in 2016, that focus on tiered approaches to improving reading and language outcomes for English learners, including those with or at risk of having a disability.
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for English Learners Resources
This web page, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), contains several briefs that highlight research to support students with or at risk of a disability. Research-based strategies for reading, culturally responsive practices, professional learning and coaching, and data-based decision making are features considered to support English learners within strong universal supports and inclusive environments.
Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Resources
Regional Educational Laboratory: Identifying English Learners with Disabilities
This brief 2 page info graphic from the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) provides practical tips for the evaluation of English Learners suspected to have a disability.
Regional Educational Laboratory: Determining Special Education Eligibility of English Learners
This document provides considerations for how school leaders can support special education determination for English learner students.
Regional Educational Laboratory: Identifying and Supporting English Learner Students with Learning Disabilities: Key Issues in the Literature and State Practice
This review of research and policy literature from the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) West provides key elements of processes that can help identify and support English learner students with learning disabilities, discussing current guidelines used by the twenty states with the largest populations of English learner students.
Regional Educational Laboratory: Processes and Challenges in Identifying Learning Disabilities Among English Language Learner Students in Three New York State Districts
This study from the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) examines practices and challenges in the processes utilized in three New York State districts in identifying learning disabilities among students who are English language learners. The study aims to provide information helpful to districts in accurately identifying students who are English language learners and also have learning disabilities.
Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) Resources
CCSSO English Learners with Disabilities Guide
This guide from the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), developed for State Educational Agencies, includes many important messages about how school districts should identify and provide services for English Learners with disabilities.
CCSSO Framework on Supporting Educators to Prepare and Successfully Exit English Learners with Disabilities from EL Status
This framework from the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) aims to facilitate support for educators to prepare for and successfully exit English learners with disabilities from English learner status. The resource contains considerations for exiting English learners with disabilities from English learner status and considerations for providing technical assistance to districts serving English learners with disabilities who are not yet able to exit English learner status.
Restart & Recovery: Supporting English Learners with Disabilities During Remote Learning & School Reopening
This report from the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) provides recommendations for creating and expanding policy guidance addressing the needs of English learners with disabilities during remote learning and school reopening. The report also contains recommendations to address challenges schools face in supporting English learners with disabilities in addition to suggesting state leadership actions to help strengthen the collaboration between English learners and special education departments
Colorín Colorado Resources
Colorín Colorado: Special Education and English Language Learners
This Colorín Colorado web page contains information on how schools and families can collaborate to ensure English Learners, including those with special needs, have the appropriate support and services to meet their unique needs.
Colorín Colorado: English Language Learners with Learning Disabilities
This Colorín Colorado webcast examines effective assessment and instruction strategies for English learners with learning disabilities, in addition to discussing ways to help encourage the active involvement of parents of English learners with learning disabilities in their children’s schools.
Additional Resources
National Association of Educational Translators and Interpreters of Spoken Languages (NAETISL)
NAETISL’s mission is to establish standards for training of spoken language interpreters and translators, and best practices for multilingual families and educators to:
- Increase multilingual family engagement
- Improve academic achievement of all students
- Strengthen the collaboration among multilingual families, educators and spoken language interpreters and translators
Welcoming Bilingual Learners with Disabilities into Dual Language Programs
This white paper reviews evidence related to the capacity of young learners with disabilities to acquire more than one language during the preschool and school years. The authors discuss the characteristics of dual language programs and classroom instruction and intervention practices that support language development, learning, and well-being in school of young English Learners with disabilities.
WIDA Focus Bulletin Identifying ELLs with Specific Learning Disabilities: Facts, Advice, and Resources for School Teams
This May 2017 article from the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) provides practical recommendations for school teams in identifying and supporting English Learners with Specific Learning Disabilities.
WIDA Accessibility and Accommodations Web Page
This web resource from the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) provides accessibility and accommodation tips for English Learners.
Providing ELLs with Disabilities with Access to Complex Language
This document from WIDA provides educators "an approach for providing meaningful access to content area instruction to ELLs with disabilities." One can note that the key uses of academic language on page 4 has been updated from “Recount, Argue, Explain, Discuss” to “Narrate, Inform, Explain, Argue” in the 2020 Edition of WIDA’s framework that was adopted earlier this year.
National Deaf Center: Deaf Students and English Learner Services
This resource from the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes (NDC) contains an overview of English language proficiency, how it is measured when it comes to eligibility for English learner services, and what this can mean for deaf students.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: Multilingual Service Delivery in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology
This American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) web page provides a list of resources from ASHA and beyond, including policy documents, articles, and videos, that contain information about supporting English language learners in schools.
English Language Proficiency Assessment: Decision Making Considerations for English Learner Students with Disabilities
This document from the state of Oregon provides the definition of an English learner, the definition of a student with a disability, and subsequent considerations for IEP teams in regard to English learner students with disabilities and the English language proficiency assessment.