Policy Regarding the Treatment of National Origin Minority Students Who Are Limited English Proficient (April 6, 1990, transmitting and reissuing December 3, 1985 Title VI Language Minority Compliance Procedures).    [full text]

This outlines the obligations of schools to language minority students and was a broadening of the requirements laid out in the Lau Remedies leaving specifics up to districts. This memorandum allows for a case-by-case determination of a district’s compliance with Title VI.  The basic requirement is that if there is a need for an alternative program for language minority students, it should be effective in meeting their educational needs.  There are several qualifications of these requirements, most notably that the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) itself does not make a decision about effectiveness, but relies on the judgment of “experts”.  An “expert” is defined as:  someone whose experience and training expressly qualifies him or her to render such judgments and whose objectivity is not at issue.

In addition, the “mere absence” of any measures to determine whether or not there is a need for a program does not constitute non-compliance.  Informal methods are quite acceptable, especially in districts with very few language minority students, so long as they outline the program and the rationale behind it.  There are requirements that the staff be appropriately trained and that adequate resources be provided for.  Limited resources do not justify non-compliance but remedies should not divert them from other services.  Any alternative program set up by a district must also be evaluated and modifications must be made if they are needed.

The memorandum provides very little in the way of concrete rules that must be followed, but allows several ways in which districts can delay or avoid charges of  non-compliance.  The qualifications on the policy are broad and various, summed up by the assertion that “the OCR does not require a program that places unrealistic expectations on a district.”  The simple aim of the policy is for districts to provide a “strategy that works – or promises to work”.  There is no attempt to define any expectations that might be imposed by the OCR, however, or any standards for determining if a program “works.”