English learners: initial identification: English language proficiency assessment.

Existing law requires each school district that has one or more pupils who are English learners, and, to the extent required by federal law, each county office of education and each charter school, to assess the English language development of each pupil in order to determine the pupil's level of proficiency, as specified. Existing law requires the State Department of Education, with the approval of the State Board of Education, to establish procedures for conducting the assessment and for the reclassification of a pupil from English learner to English proficient. Existing law requires those reclassification procedures to utilize multiple criteria in determining whether to reclassify a pupil as proficient in English, including, among other things, an assessment of language proficiency using the English language development test that is developed or acquired by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as provided. Existing law requires the assessment for initial identification to be conducted upon the initial enrollment of a pupil, as provided. Existing law requires the English language development test to assess pupils in kindergarten and grade 1 in English listening and speaking, as provided. This bill would define "initial enrollment" for the purposes of the above-described provision regarding initial identification to exclude enrollment in a transitional kindergarten program. The bill would expressly state that the above-described requirement for pupils in kindergarten to be assessed in English listening and speaking does not include pupils in transitional kindergarten. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.