Departments of Justice and Education Reach Settlement with Arizona Department of Education

The Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, and the Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, have entered into a settlement agreement with the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) that requires ADE and Arizona public schools to offer targeted reading and writing intervention services to tens of thousands of English Language Learner (ELL) students who were prematurely exited or incorrectly identified as Initially Fluent English Proficient (IFEP) over the past five school years. The agreement also requires ADE to develop proficiency criteria that accurately identify and exit ELL students. With the cooperation of ADE and Arizona school districts, the Departments of Justice and Education conducted an extensive investigation of the states ELL policies and programs, and determined that tens of thousands of ELL students had been misidentified as IFEPs or exited from ELL services without sufficient English proficiency in reading and writing, which is key to academic success. Because of this, the Departments found that ADE was in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI) as well as the Equal Educational Opportunities Act. While ADE disagrees with OCRs and DOJs findings of noncompliance, ADE entered into the agreement to voluntarily resolve the matter.