Program Background

ESL Program Definitions
A district may provide a program of ESL services whenever 10 or more English Language Learners are enrolled. Additionally, whenever one or more, but fewer than 10, English Language Learners are enrolled, the district board of education must provide services to improve the English language proficiency of these students.

A standard English as a Second Language program provides daily developmental English language instruction of up to two periods of instruction based on student needs. This program must address aural comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing in English using second-language teaching techniques and incorporate the cultural aspects of the student’s experiences in their ESL instruction. The ESL curriculum shall be cross-referenced to the district’s bilingual education and content area curricula to ensure that ESL instruction is correlated to all the content areas being taught.

A high-intensity ESL program provides an alternative in which English Language Learners receive two or more class periods a day of ESL instruction. One period is the standard ESL class and the other period is a tutorial or ESL reading class.