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Bilingual Education & World Languages

The Elwood School District is committed to providing a high quality education to all of our students in a learning environment that is culturally responsive and attentive to students’ academic, social and emotional needs. The Elwood School District will continue to provide a comprehensive English as a New Language (ENL) program and will provide the appropriate Units of Study to each English Language Learner (ELL) based on the most current data available regardless of the instructional model (in-person, remote learning or hybrid model).

  • All new entrants that arrived during the COVID-19 school closure as well as all students who enroll during the summer of 2020 and during the first 20 days of the 2020-21 school year will be appropriately screened following the ELL identification process outlined within the CR Part 154 regulations. This process will be completed for all students within 30 school days.
  • After this 20 day flexibility period, identification of ELLs will resume for all students within required 10 school days of initial enrollment as required by Commissioner’s Regulations Part 154.
  • Current ELLs will maintain a program in accordance with their most recent English proficiency level as determined by the 2019 NYSESLAT or a subsequent NYSITELL (if arriving after Spring 2019).



The Elwood School District is committed to maintaining regular communication with the families of our ELLs to ensure that they are engaged in their children’s education during the reopening process. This will include telephone contact, text messages, Google Meets/Zoom, social media, emails and regular mail.

  • All communication will be in their preferred language. We will continue to partner with translation services to provide both written and oral translations as appropriate.
  • Parents/guardians or designated family members of newly identified ELLs will receive an orientation of the ENL program provided at the building level, through Google Hangouts/Zoom. ESL/TESOL teachers will provide families with a comprehensive overview of the instructional program, share resources such as The Parents Bill of Rights, NYSITELL Parent Guide, A Guide for Parents of ELLs in NY and the Roadmap to College and address any questions/concerns.



The Elwood School District is committed to supporting the professional growth of the faculty and staff and recognizes the need for specialized professional development so that all teachers are equipped with effective instructional practices to support the language needs of our ELLs/MLLs.

  • Continue to provide ongoing professional development through the sharing of professional resources such as the Blueprint for English Language Learners (ELLs) Success as well as partnering with the Long Island RBERN, local BOCES and Universities to support professional development initiatives to enhance the instruction provided to ELLs.