Rescission of the Federal English Learner Dear Colleague Letter

Rescission of the Federal English Learner Dear Colleague Letter does not change our legal obligations to multilingual learners.  Colorado is home to over 100,000 K-12 public school students who are identified as English learners (EL students) – or Multilingual Learners (MLs) as we refer to these students in Colorado. For decades, and still currently, our MLs have been legally entitled to special protections and services under federal and state laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, Title III of the Every Student Succeeds Act (formerly the Elementary and Secondary Education Act), and the Colorado English Language Proficiency Act. For example, schools and districts must identify and assess ML students, ensure ML students have equal opportunities to meaningfully participate in all curricular and extracurricular activities, and provide ML students with a language assistance program that is educationally sound, proven successful, and sufficiently staffed and supported. These important rights and others were detailed in the U.S. Department of Education’s 2015 “Dear Colleague Letter (DCL): English Learner Students and Limited English Proficient Parents.” Although the U.S. Department of Education rescinded the DCL in August 2025, the laws underpinning the letter and the legal requirements described in the guidance remain firmly in place. Therefore, all elementary and secondary public schools and school districts, as well as state education agencies, must comply with the well-established rights of ML students. For additional resources, please visit the Office of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education.