Policy on Limited English Proficient Students Who Are High School Age and Have Low Levels of Literacy on First Arrival in the United States

When a school first enrolls a high-school-age student who is non-English speaking, newly arrived in the United States and whose level of literacy in his or her native language is low, school administrators may have difficulty determining the student’s correct grade placement. Schools will be allowed at least one year of academic instruction to determine the appropriate grade level of LEP students meeting these criteria. Upon enrollment, the school may arbitrarily assign the student to a grade level based on the administrator’s best judgment. This temporary grade level should be reported on the student’s STEP record in the first year of enrollment if the student has not yet been enrolled a full academic year. Before the end of the second year of enrollment, the school must evaluate the student and determine the appropriate grade level based on the student’s scheduled course work for the next semester. That grade level must be reported in STEP as the student’s grade level.

The school should calculate the year of first entering grade 9 from that grade level and report it in the STEP file. For example, if a student’s instructional grade level is determined to be grade 10, the student will be judged to have first entered grade 9 in the previous school year. If a student’s instructional grade level is determined to be grade 9, the student will be judged to have first entered grade 9 in the current school year. The year of first entering grade 9 may be changed on the STEP record reported in the student’s second year of enrollment if the grade placement reported the previous year was determined to be incorrect. If, in the second year, a student is assigned to a grade below 9 and is enrolled in a school serving students below grade 9, the students will be recorded as first entering grade 9 when they are next enrolled in grade 9. In 2004-05 schools may not report a student as having first entered grade 9 before the 2001-02 school year, unless the student was so reported on the 2003-04 STEP file. Schools may change a student’s reported year of first entering grade 9 only once.

Example: A LEP students who is 17 years of age first enters a school in the United States in February 2005. The student has only five years of formal education and is arbitrarily placed in grade 10. On the 2004-05 STEP file the student should be reported as being in grade 10 during the 2004-05 school year and as first entering grade 9 in 2003. In September 2005, the student is again placed in grade 10 courses. On the 2005-06 STEP file, the student should be reported as being in grade 10 during the 2005-06 school year and as first entering grade 9 in 2004. All subsequent records for that student should show the student as first entering grade 9 in 2004.