The determination that an English learner (EL) with disabilities should be reclassified and exited from English language development services is an important decision that must be made for individual students. NCEO recently published a new report, Providing English Development Services to English Learners with Disabilities: Approaches to Making Exit Decisions. It describes what we know about current populations of ELs with disabilities, including their numbers and disability characteristics. It then presents the results of a survey that asked states about their exit criteria. The purpose of this report is to provide a baseline report on factors that affected decisions to exit ELs with disabilities prior to the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

The survey results indicated that many states did not have a specific exit process or criteria for ELs with disabilities, allowing districts to establish their own criteria. Most states did not know how many ELs with disabilities exited EL services; in those states that did know, the percentages of ELs with disabilities exiting from EL services were relatively small.

The results suggested that many states could benefit from developing or refining their exit criteria for ELs with disabilities. These states might benefit from considering the use of multiple measures of exit readiness for these students. The results also suggested that it would be beneficial to use a team approach to exit decision making, with the team including both Individualized Education Program (IEP) and EL team members.