Language Access: Communicating with MLs and Their Parents
Live Wednesday, October 23rd, 2024
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Hear from a panel of educators who are overcoming language barriers and meeting legal requirements of communicating to parents of English learners (ELs). The legal requirements set forth in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the associated court cases Lau and Castañeda established that the rights of ELs and limited English proficient parents are violated if local education agencies don’t make efforts to overcome language barriers. This webinar highlights these legal requirements to provide EL programs and to communicate with parents in a language they understand. The panelists bring perspectives from different states, demographics and district sizes. They will share how they are implementing best practices and meeting the requirements in their own contexts.
Lee Her
Lee Her is the Minnesota Department of Education’s Director of the Public Engagement Division. The division is responsible for fostering a culture of community engagement that builds and maintains resilient partnerships for and on behalf of the department. The division also facilitates opportunities for missing voices to engage and inform department goals and priorities and promotes solutions and resources that enhance shared knowledge of what it takes to meaningfully collaborate with communities.
lee.her@state.mn.us
Tamara Eklof-Parks
Tamara Eklof-Parks grew up in a multilingual household and was a Master Teacher in New York City before moving to Vermont to be a high school principal. She now works in the district office as the federal grants program manager (Title I, McKinney Vento and Title III). Tamara is also in the 3rd year of a doctoral program for Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Vermont. She is on the board of Northern New England TESOL, participates in the LEA committee for NAELPA and leads a statewide multilingual coordinators and directors support group. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, hiking with her dogs, and traveling to new destinations.
tparks@ewsd.org
Georgina Foroi
Aldine ISD’s Family and Community Engagement (FACE) Executive Director Georgina Foroi stands as a testament to the transformative power of education and the impact one individual can have in a school district. As the new Executive Director of FACE , Gina brings 19 years of commitment and experience to her role. Gina’s journey in Aldine ISD began humbly, starting as a paraprofessional 19 years ago at Conley Elementary School. Since then, she has held various roles within the district, including teacher, instructional coach, assistant principal, and principal, before assuming her current position as FACE executive director.
gforoi@aldineisd.org
David Holbrook
Dr. Holbrook earned his Ph.D. in linguistics at the University of the West Indies in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and has over 20 years of experience working with speakers of other languages. Dr. Holbrook spent nearly six years at the Wyoming Department of Education, where he held positions as Federal Programs Division Director, Title I Director, Title III Director, and for six months was Director of both the Federal programs and Assessment Divisions. Dr. Holbrook also served as the state’s Native American Education Consultant working with the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes on the Wind River Indian Reservation. As Federal Programs Division Director he was responsible for oversight of federal education programs, including Title I, Title III, and McKinney-Vento programs for students experiencing homelessness. He trained with the U.S. Department of Education and participated in federal monitoring of Title III in five states. He has served 12 years with the National Association of English Learner Program Administrators (NAELPA, formerly NCSTIIID), two years as President and is now NAELPA’s Executive Director. He is the Executive Director of Federal Programs and State Relationships for TransACT Communications.
José A. Velázquez, Ph.D.
José A. Velázquez has over 30 years of experience as a PK-12 Bilingual/ESL classroom teacher, high school principal and national consultant. As Director of Academic Instruction and School Support at ESC 19 in El Paso, Texas, he leads a team of core content experts that provide professional development and technical assistance to support school improvement and innovation in rural and urban contexts across Far West Texas borderland communities. As an English Learner, he values and promotes biliteracy for all students and embraces the role educators can play as advocates for equity and social justice. He firmly believes that Emergent Bilingual family leadership and engagement are key elements that further strengthen the academic trajectory of second language learners.
Javelazquez@esc19.net
National Association of ESEA State Program Administrators (NAESPA) & the ESEA Network
NAESPA is a membership organization of state directors and state-level staff working in the federal education programs which are authorized by the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA). NAESPA’s mission is “building the capacity of education professionals to provide children served by ESEA programs with a high quality education.”
ESEA Network is a project of NAESPA. It is the embodiment of the National ESEA Conference, Video OnDemand service, professional development opportunities, and resources--as well as the people brought together by these connections on www.eseanetwork.org.
NAELPA (National Association of English Learner Program Administrators)
The NAELPA serves as the voice of MLs, representing SEAs and LEAs across the United States. We are small enough to hear individual voices, yet powerful enough to be heard as a whole. The organization provides its members with direct contact to the change agents in each state and at the Federal level. With two-way communication between the council and the decision makers, our voice can be heard.
