1985: ELC Files Class Action, Wins Improvements for Asian Immigrant Students
As Education Law Center marks our 50th anniversary, we are highlighting ELC milestones and successes over the decades.
In 1985, the Education Law Center filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Asian immigrant students who were being left to languish in Philadelphia classrooms because of a school district failure to provide language supports.
Our successful lawsuit, Y.S. v. School District of Philadelphia, resulted in a consent decree requiring the district to improve its academic program: the district expanded English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) instruction; hired bilingual teachers, counselors, and paraprofessionals; and provided translation and interpretation services. Under the “Y.S. Stipulation,” the district worked with ELC to monitor district progress annually for nearly three decades, pressing for continued improvements for multilingual learners.
Y.S. was precipitated by the arrival of many children from Southeast Asia who had been denied opportunities for formal schooling and spoke languages that were not familiar to district personnel, former ELC executive director Len Rieser, lead attorney in the case, recalled.
The district had relied on “the immersion model,” placing children in subject-matter classes taught in English, with no additional help. Without supports from school, students were receiving no meaningful instruction, Rieser told Education Week at the time.
Y.S., a 16-year-old who was a named plaintiff, had come with his family from war-torn Cambodia. School officials had tested him with an evaluation designed for English speakers, labeled him as having mental retardation, and assigned him to a special education classroom with no language support.
Translation and interpretation services were never offered to his parents, making it impossible for them to participate in developing the Individualized Education Program that impacted their son’s placement.
Y.S.’s placement was not unique: It was common in that era for districts to inappropriately place students identified as “limited English proficient” in special education classes. The success of our Y.S. litigation was a wakeup call to other districts to do better in their programming for immigrant children.
For its part, the district did not contest the allegations, initially moving to boost the numbers of teachers fluent in Asian languages.
“I like to think that Y.S. at least made the immersion ‘model’ unacceptable, expanded the district’s capacity to provide ESOL classes and more comprehensible subject-matter instruction, and did away with the idea that parents who speak other languages would have to fend for themselves,” Rieser said.
Today the district touts that its Office of Multilingual Curriculum and Programs supports over 25,000 English learners from 130-plus countries and speaking more than 100 home languages.
“But while Y.S. may have gotten the ball rolling, the district has a long way to go to build a truly adequate system of services for children and families whose native language isn’t English,” Rieser said.
ELC continues our advocacy to ensure multilingual learners throughout Pennsylvania have access to quality public education.