The state education department has ignored its obligation to make sure that thousands of students learning English receive adequate and legally required assistance, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
State officials said they had not studied the lawsuit, but insisted they are meeting their legal obligations.
The suit, filed by the
American Civil Liberties Union and others, focuses on an estimated 20,000 students who are receiving no help or inadequate services as they work to learn English and keep up academically at the same time.
“It is a blatant violation of the law not to provide these students the most basic and essential component of their education -- language to access their classes,” said Jessica Price, staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.
Advocates based their conclusions on information that school districts report to the state Department of Education. About 250 districts acknowledge they are providing no services or inappropriate language help to these students, and yet "the state of California does absolutely
