Understanding the U.S. Department of Education’s Role in Supporting English Learners

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has quickly found itself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce government spending. President Trump has expressed a desire to dismantle ED and move core programs to other agencies. The weakening of ED risks essential funds and services to millions of students across the country, including specially protected populations such as English learners (ELs). English learner students, the majority of whom are U.S. citizens, represent 11 percent of total K–12 school enrollment. ED plays a critical role in ensuring states across the country are following through on their legal responsibility to these students.

Although the Trump administration has yet to act on all its threats, EL students benefit from a range of programs and funding sources administered by ED including funding; accountability and reporting; civil rights oversight, enforcement, and guidance; and data, research, and technical assistance.

Funding

ED is responsible for distributing funding intended to support English learners through a series of discretionary and formula grants:

• Title I of the ESEA/ESSA provides grants to local educational agencies (LEAs) for improving the academic achievement of economically disadvantaged students. ELs are overrepresented in high-poverty schools (known as Title I schools) and it is estimated that 37 percent of English learners live in poverty. As such, ELs benefit from this funding stream.
• Title I, Part C provides grants to state educational agencies to assist in supporting high-quality and comprehensive educational programs and services during the school year and, as applicable, during summer or intersession periods, that address the educational needs of migratory children.
• Title III, Part A, the only grant program that is specifically geared towards supporting ELs and recent immigrant students in the classroom, provides grants to state and local educational agencies to help implement programs that help ensure ELs, including immigrant children and youth, attain English proficiency and develop high levels of academic achievement in English. The most recent appropriation for fiscal year 2025 was $890 million.
• The Native American and Alaska Native Children in School (NAM) program awards discretionary grants to eligible entities to develop and enhance capacity to provide effective instruction and support to Native American students who are identified as ELs.

ED also administers a variety of grants designed to support the preparation and professional development of teachers to equip them with the strategies and skills to support ELs’ linguistic and academic development:

• Title II, Part A gives non-competitive grants that are distributed based on a predetermined formula to state education agencies for activities focused on increasing the quality and effectiveness of teachers and school leaders, increasing the number of effective teachers and school leaders, and boosting access to effective teachers for historically underserved students.
• The National Professional Development (NPD) Program provides competitive grants to institutions of higher education (IHEs) to partner with local school districts and community-based organizations to prepare and provide professional learning to teachers of EL-identified students. The 2024 NPD competition awarded over $40 million to support projects at 13 IHEs and school districts, with a focus on bilingual teacher development. Historically, many of the programs funded under NPD have focused on helping general education teachers earn an additional certification in the area of EL instruction, provide certification in dual-language education, or help bilingual paraeducators become licensed teachers.
• Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence provides competitive grants to support the improvement of teacher preparation programs at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and minority serving institutions (MSIs). While this program is not focused specifically on teachers of ELs, the 2024 competition included a preference for projects to prepare bilingual and multilingual teachers.

Accountability (Title I) and Reporting (Title III)

ED is responsible for ensuring states, districts, and schools are abiding by the provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015—the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Guardrails enshrined in Title I of ESSA include the requirement that states adopt standardized, statewide entrance and exit procedures for ELs, and ensure that new students are assessed within 30 days of school enrollment to determine if they should be classified as ELs and thus eligible for language development services, among others. ESSA also required for the first time that schools be held accountable for whether ELs are making progress toward achieving English proficiency, as well as whether they are meeting state standards as measured by statewide standardized tests.

Title III of ESSA authorizes federal grants and lays out the responsibilities of state and local education agencies (SEAs and LEAs) to use those funds to support services for EL and immigrant students. Originally Title VII, the Bilingual Education Act, Title III has been continually amended, including by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002 and ESSA in 2015. Today Title III houses certain reporting requirements for SEAs/LEAs, the National Professional Development (NPD) grants, and specifies the role of the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Education Programs.

Over the years the ESEA has been amended to include various protection measures for EL-identified students and without its implementation, English learners would be rendered invisible once again. It is well known that prior to 1968 the academic and linguistic needs of EL students were unilaterally ignored which placed these students in “sink-or-swim” situations.

Civil Rights Oversight, Enforcement, and Guidance

The intricate web of legislation and case law that ensures English learners’ right to a free, adequate, and meaningful education is enforced by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Education and the Educational Opportunities Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). OCR is responsible for investigating violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and DOJ is responsible for enforcing Title IV, which includes discrimination complaints alleging the denial of equal protection to students based on race, color, national origin, sex, and religion by public schools and institutions of higher learning, as well as the EEOA of 1974.

In 2015, these two bodies issued joint guidance to SEAs about what it means to provide ELs with meaningful access to education. This includes providing them with language assistance programs that are educationally sound, and ensuring they can access all curricular and extracurricular activities, including the core curriculum, graduation requirements, specialized and advanced courses, and programs, sports, and clubs.

As of February 2025, there were 124 open OCR cases pending under investigation for Title VI violations at elementary-secondary and post-secondary schools, and the DOJ has investigated and settled countless EL-related cases. This shows that despite the fact that EL rights and protections are intricately embedded into the legal fabric of the U.S., these frameworks are only as strong as the enforcement and oversight mechanisms that are built alongside them.

Data, Research, and Technical Assistance

ED oversees and administers state data collection and reporting on English learners. These include EDFacts, Common Core of Data, Consolidated State Performance Reports (CSPR), and the Civil Rights Data Collection. These data sources can be used to help inform policy, guide research, and examine ELs’ academic performance, outcomes, and access to educational opportunities.

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which is an independent arm of ED that provides evaluation, research, and statistics, plays an important role in shaping our understanding of the EL-identified student population. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at IES provides comprehensive data on EL student enrollment, demographics, languages spoken, receipt of language services, and more. On February 10, the Trump administration cancelled almost $900 million in contracts at IES. Many questions remain about which data collections will be affected and what data will still be available moving forward.

IES also funds research studies and centers focused on EL students. For example, the National Research & Development Center to Improve Education for Secondary English Learners at WestEd conducts studies and develops resources to improve the education of ELs in the secondary grades. While the Regional Education Laboratory (REL) program works directly with school districts, state education agencies, and other education partners to conduct applied research that addresses their needs.

ED provides technical assistance through the Comprehensive Centers program that seeks to build the capacity of state education agencies (SEAs), local education agencies (LEAs), regional education agencies, and schools to help strengthen their education systems. Made up of 14 regional centers, four content centers, and one national center, they offer targeted services that can support federal policy implementation, such as ESSA and the use of evidenced-based practices. One of the content centers, the Center on English Learners and Multilingualism at Loyola Marymount University, seeks to help SEAs and LEAs to “[develop] coherent systems that improve early language acquisition; meet the needs of English learners with disabilities; increase access to high-quality language programs; and ensure access to grade-level content, prepared educators, and effective family and community engagement opportunities.”

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) administers grants, such as the National Professional Development program, hosts webinars and convenings, administers Title III, funds research, and publishes and produces fact sheets, toolkits, reports, and other resources focused on the EL student population. Additionally, the National Clearinghouse of Language Acquisition (NCELA) is a repository of OELA resources and also engages in activities to support practitioners, state education agencies and other interested parties to strengthen their work with EL-identified students.

This blog post was updated on March 13, 2025 to reflect the recent actions that the Trump administration has taken to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.

For more on New America's growing collection of posts and statements on defending the Department of Education, see here.