Title III Requirements & Private Schools

1. Title III Requirements & Private Schools Jacqueline A. Iribarren, Ph.D. Title III Consultant Fall 2012

2. First of All: First of All… Only non-profit private schools may participate in Title III funding & services Title III services provided to private school children and educational personnel must be secular, neutral, and non-ideological.

3. LEA Requirements: LEAs must consult with the private school; this consultation must take place before the LEA makes any decisions that impact the participation of private school students and teachers in the Title III program LEAs must provide equitable services to private school students and teachers

4. LEA Requirements: LEAs must conduct timely and meaningful consultation with appropriate private school officials. LEAs must provide educational services (not funds) to ELLs students, their teachers, or other educational personnel in private schools that are located in the geographic areas served by the district.

5. Consultation should Include: Provision of Title III Services: • How private school students’ needs will be identified • The services that the LEA will provide to meet those needs • The amount of funding available to provide services • How the services will be assessed

6. LEA Responsibilities: LEA is responsible for assessing English language proficiency in private schools Private schools can use the Home Language Survey (HLS) as a potential identifier LEA cannot require a private school to administer an English language proficiency assessment

7. LEA Responsibilities: • Ensure ELP assessments for private school students, however, private school can use any ELP assessment as they wish (see slides 8 and 10 for more information) • LEA must consult with the private school on how such services will be assessed and how the results of the assessment will be used to improve those services

8. Q: Are private school students receiving Title III services required to participate in the English language proficiency assessments that are required of all public school students receiving Title III services? A: Private school students receiving Title III services, like participating public school students, must be assessed annually for their level of English proficiency in the domains of speaking, listening, reading, writing and comprehension. LEAs, in timely and meaningful consultation with private schools, are responsible for administering an annual English proficiency assessment that is agreed upon by the private school. The state assessments may be used, if they are appropriate, or other assessments, such as those administered by the private school, may be used. In any case the assessments must be comparable to those used for the public school students and aligned with the achievement of the academic content and student academic achievement standards established by the state or by the private school. [emphasis added] Options for English Language Proficiency Assessments for use with Private Schools: Source: handout/Q&A on Title III and private school participation during SEA Directors’ meeting, Nov. 2005, Washington, DC

9. How about Teacher Language Fluency: Does the Title III requirement on language qualifications for teachers providing Title III services to public school students apply to teachers providing these services to private school students? Yes. Like teachers serving public school LEP students, teachers providing Title III services to private school students, whether LEA employees or third-party contract employees, are subject to the requirement that teachers in a Title III program must be fluent in English and any other language used for instruction. Source: OELA Summit 2004

10. Assessment Information :

11. References: References: Section 9501 Section 9501(c) Section 9501(c)(1)D)

12. Any Questions? Please contact: Jacqueline A. Iribarren, Ph.D. Title III Consultant jacqueline.iribarren@dpi.wi.gov (608) 266-7292