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Bilingual Education & English as a New Language

Bilingual Education & English as a New Language

Count of Immigrant Children and Youth, 2022

Language Instruction for Immigrant Students

Introduction

The State Education Department annually collects the number of immigrant students, as defined by Section 3301(6) of ESEA, present in New York State. The information is used each year by the Department to determine each local educational agency's (LEA's) eligibility and allocation for the Title III, Part A Immigrant Education program.

As a result, each LEA must count and report the number of immigrant students currently enrolled in the public and nonpublic schools in the geographic area under the jurisdiction of, or served by, the LEA who were enrolled in the district or charter school.

Immigrant students are defined as individuals who:

a) are aged 3 through 21;
b) were not born in any State; and
c) have not been attending one or more schools in any one or more States for more than 3 full academic years. The months need not be consecutive.

"State" means the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Children born to U.S. citizens abroad (including those born on military bases), the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, or any other U.S. territory that is not D.C. or Puerto Rico are considered immigrants.

Completing the Count

  • Public school districts and Charter Schools report their data through the Student Information Repository System (SIRS). Contact your district data coordinator for additional information on SIRS. Public LEA counts of immigrant students will be those enrolled in the LEA at the time of the final data pull in June 2022. 

  • Nonpublic schools report their data to the public school district in which they are located, and the public district then reports the data through the Basic Educational Data System (BEDS) Institutional Master File (IMF) District Form.  Additional information on the BEDS IMF can be found on the Information Reporting Services (IRS) website. Counts of immigrant students enrolled in nonpublic schools will be as of BEDS day.

  • For immigrant students attending non-public schools, public school districts must maintain on file a list of the immigrant students counted, dates of arrival, the nonpublic school in which they are enrolled, and copies of the letter to each of the nonpublic schools in its jurisdiction regarding the count.

  • Prior to submitting the data, the Chief School Officer must read the following assurances, paying particular attention to items b. and f. Electronic submittal of the data to the Department through SIRS and the BEDS IMF demonstrates that the Chief School Officer has read and agreed to the assurances.

Assurances

By submitting this data to the State Education Department, the Chief School Officer assures the Commissioner of Education of the State of New York that:

  1. Funds received on the basis of this count will be used for programs and services consistent with the purposes, requirements and other conditions as stipulated under Sections 3102, 3115, 3116, 3121, 3122, 3123 and 3124 of Title III Part A-English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement of ESEA.
  2. All public and nonpublic schools within the geographic area under the jurisdiction of the LEA were canvassed for eligible immigrant students.
  3. All eligible immigrant students in both public and nonpublic schools are included in this count.
  4. All students included in this count were enrolled in a public or nonpublic school in the LEAs jurisdiction as of October 2, 2019.
  5. A file is maintained by the LEA that includes a list of the eligible immigrant students attending nonpublic schools, dates of arrival in the United States, and the nonpublic schools in which they are enrolled.
  6. The Chief School Officer has verified the public and nonpublic immigrant counts and know them to be true and accurate.
  7. The Chief School Officer hereby certifies that all the facts, figures and representations in the data, including all exhibits and attachments, hereto and hereby submitted, are true and correct to the best of the Chief School Officer’s knowledge.

Technical Assistance

LEAs requiring assistance with collecting or reporting this data should contact their Regional Bilingual Education Resource Network  or the Department's Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages at (518) 474-8775 or (718) 722-2445.

Additional information about federal immigration law is available on the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website, and the entire text of Title III, Part A can be found on the US Department of Education: Title III Language Instruction for English Learners and Immigrant Students.

 

 

Updated 10/17/2023