Lau Plan
From the Iowa Department of Education: "The Lau Plan is so named because of the seminal case of the 1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lau v. Nichols and is civil right requirement for all school districts regardless of English learner or Immigrant student enrollment.
A Lau Plan is required of both public and nonpublic accredited districts in accordance with Title III of the ESEA (PL 107-110) and federal civil rights law, as well as Iowa Code 280.4 and Iowa Code 216.9.
Regardless of whether a district has identified English Learners (referred to as LEP in state and federal code) or immigrant student enrollment, the law requires the development of a plan to address the specific language instruction education needs should it become necessary to provide such services. The district should review and revise the Lau Plan on an annual basis to ensure adequate preparation of all educational personnel to meet the unique needs of diverse language learners.
On an annual basis, districts and accredited nonpublic schools must involve representatives from all stakeholder groups to review and make any necessary revisions to the district's Lau Plan. In all cases, the Lau Plan should be made publicly available and understood by all staff who work with English Learner students."
For assistance with reviewing Lau Plans, please contact Sarah Brincks, sbrincks@aea1.k12.ia.us.
Standardized Entrance and Exit Procedures for Iowa's English Learners
Home Language Survey
The completion of the Home Language Survey (HLS) is the first step in identifying potential English learners. In accordance with federal law and required by Iowa code 281—60.3(1), LEAs are required to administer an HLS for all students at the time of enrollment. The HLS is designed to gather information about a student’s language background and identify students whose primary language or home language is other than English.
Effective August 1, 2022 (or enrollment for the 22-23 school year), Iowa will implement a new HLS which replaces the language use current questions with three required questions. The three questions have been approved by the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
The required questions are:
1. What is the primary language used in the regardless of the language spoken by the student?
2. What is the language most often spoken by the student?
3. What is the language that the student first acquired?
Reminder: While the 3 questions will determine screening eligibility, the broader form should be considered as it contains other data elements the LEA needs to collect. **It should also be noted that LEAs not obtain a new HLS for existing students but must use the new form as described above for all new students entering the district beginning August 1, 2022 (or enrollment for the 22-23 school year). LEAs may access the new form through TransAct. The HLS must be appropriately filed with the other permanent student enrollment documentation.
![ELL png]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1544632594/aea1k12iaus/v1veee4wopfxjqqkrrnn/ELL.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1544632594/aea1k12iaus/v1veee4wopfxjqqkrrnn/ELL.png","width":384}])
