OSSE’s English learner policies are provided in the publication Delivering Education Services to English Learners. The following updates have been made since the May 2021 release:

• Exit Criteria: The state continues to use the ACCESS for ELLs composite score as a base for its criteria to exit a student from EL status. Beginning with the 2021-22 school year ACCESS administration, the exit criteria is now 5.0 or higher for students in kindergarten and 4.5 or higher for students in grades 1 through 12.
• New to US Definition: The state definition of a new to US student is now a student whose enrollment in a US school totals 12 months or fewer. The total does not need to be based on consecutive months of enrollment.
• School Information System (SIS) Requirements: When identifying a student as EL, LEAs should enter the following in their SIS in order to avoid receiving a Unified Data Error (UDE):
• o A non-English language in the Native Language field
• o The screener score, screener status and screener date
• Kindergarten English Language Proficiency Screeners: The K W-APT screener has been retired and replaced with the WIDA Screener for Kindergarten.
• EL Program Models: Details about EL program models are now hyperlinked in this publication under Step 1: Educational Approach.
• EL Status Changes: The Characteristics Conflict module in SLED replaces the submission of OSSE Support Tool (OST) tickets to report EL status changes.

For more information, please contact Lucia Cuomo at [email protected].