Recent Communication

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May 25, 2024

Title lll and Bilingual AERs now open in eGMS

The Title III and Bilingual Annual Evaluation Reports (AERs) are now open in the eGMS. The AERs are due by Friday, June 28^th. Please see additional information about completing the AERs below.

Which districts need to complete the Title III Annual Evaluation Report (AER)?

All districts that accepted Title III funds during the 2023-2024 school year must complete the Title III AER. Each individual district, regardless of whether you applied independently or as part of a consortium, must complete an AER. RESCs that serve as the fiscal agent for a Title III consortium must complete an AER ONLY if the RESC receives its own Title III allocation (i.e. if the RESC operates a school with ELs enrolled) and should only report on its own Title III activities rather than activities of the consortium member districts. The only districts that should not complete a Title III AER are those that were not eligible to receive or declined their 2023-2024 Title III funds.

Which districts need to complete the Bilingual Grant Annual Evaluation Report (AER)?

All districts that were mandated to provide a bilingual program or programs in the 2023-2024 school year are required to complete a bilingual grant AER. If there is a bilingual grant AER available for your district to complete in the system, your district must complete the bilingual grant AER.

Where can I find the AER documents to complete?

Both the Title III and bilingual grant AERs are located on the Electronic Grants Management System. Having them in the eGMS system creates a permanent and easily accessible record for both the district and the CSDE and will provide enhanced functionality for data analysis, reporting and compilation. The AERs can be accessed from the Funding Applications tab by clicking ‘Application Supplements, please see instructions, which include screenshots, for detailed information on how to access the AERs.

What content has changed in the AERs?

This year’s Title III AER content has changed based on changes to data collection by the US Department of Education. These changes are only in the first field where the district indicates what types of activities occurred in the 2023-2024 school year. The bilingual AERs remain largely unchanged from last year’s other than updates to the grant period on which you are reporting.

What if I don’t have access to the eGMS?

Districts handle eGMS access in different ways. If you do not have access, but your district wishes for you to have it, anyone in your district with user access administrator permissions can add you. If your district restricts access but would like you to complete the AER, screen shots could be given to you, and then you could provide the responses, which could be input by someone with system access. The eGMS User Guide, which can be found on the CSDE resources tab, provides detailed instructions for creating a user in the system in Section VI: User Access Administration. This screenshot shows where to access the Guide:

Useful reminder-Fiscal Year:

Please note that the fiscal year MUST be set to 2024 in the system. Because of the current time of year, the system is autoset to 2025, but in order to access and complete the 2023-2024 AER, choose ‘2024’ on the drop down menu.

When are the Title III AER and Bilingual grant AER due?

The Title III AER is due by Friday, June 28^th 2024.

May 23, 2024

Mandated Bilingual Programs for SY 2024-2025

Trend data shows that the number of ELs/MLs continues to increase annually. That holds true in the growing number of districts and schools required to implement bilingual programs. This is clearly evident when looking at the data below across school years 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25.

Mandated Bilingual Schools for SY 2024-25

Bilingual Highlights

School Year	SY 2024-25	SY 2023-24	SY 2022-23
Districts	62	60	58
Schools	366	354	325
Programs	417	396	357
Languages	9	8	8

Bilingual student counts: The attached counts provide the number of eligible students in each school building that is mandated to provide a bilingual education program for the 2024-2025 school year. As you are aware, these counts are derived from the data that districts provide on the previous year’s October PSIS collection. These student counts are used by our fiscal office to generate the district allocations for the bilingual grant, and the initial work of this process is currently underway. As soon as we have an approved state budget and I receive the bilingual entitlements, I will provide them to all of mandated districts.

Obligations of districts to provide bilingual services: When a district is mandated to provide a bilingual program, the district must offer the program to any eligible students in the school or schools that are mandated. The district must provide native language support to any eligible students whose parents have opted into the program. Although the threshold for mandating a program is 20 speakers of the same, non-English native language in one school building, once a district is mandated to provide a bilingual program, it must provide it to the students whose parents have opted into the program. Thus, even if only one family opts in, native language support would still be required to be provided for that child/children. Any eligible children that opt into the program at a mandated bilingual school must receive native language support. As a reminder, a bilingual certified teacher is a required component of a mandated bilingual program. This teacher can provide ESL to students or the students can receive ESL (in addition to bilingual instruction) via a TESOL certified teacher.

Bilingual grant listserv signup: If you are not already on the bilingual listserv but would like to receive updates and communications pertaining to the bilingual grant, professional learning opportunities, and new resources, please sign up. You can sign yourself up on the Recent Communication tab of the English Learners page of the CSDE portal. Follow the quick instructions at the top of the page for how to sign up.

TESOL in lieu of bilingual:I receive several questions annually regarding district obligations for seeking and hiring bilingual certified staff, so I am providing answers to the commonly asked ones here. If your district is mandated to provide one or more bilingual programs and does not have any bilingual certified staff, the district must post for a bilingual certified teacher. If the posting does not result in the hiring of a bilingual certified teacher, the statutory requirement is that the district must request from the Commissioner permission to use a TESOL teacher in lieu of a bilingual teacher.

The TESOL in lieu letter should be attached as a related document in your bilingual grant application in eGMS and should be sent to me at megan.alubicki@ct.gov. Wendy Harwin and I do initial reviews of the letters received and then submit them to management for final review and approval. The letter must state that the district is requesting to use a TESOL teacher in lieu of a bilingual teacher because the job posting for a bilingual teacher did not result in the hiring of a qualified candidate. The letter must include the name/s and EIN/s for any TESOL teacher that will serve in lieu of a bilingual teacher and must explain how the students eligible for bilingual services (whose parents have chosen for them to participate in such program) will receive native language support. The job posting for the bilingual position should be attached. If the issue persists for more than one year, the district must annually follow the process of posting and requesting permission if the post does not yield a certified bilingual teacher.

Extension of time in a transitional bilingual program: As you are aware, districts may request that a student’s time in a transitional bilingual program to be extended beyond 30 months. These requests are made on a student-by-student basis. Requests can be made three times for up to a total of 30 additional school months in a transitional bilingual program. Like last year, there is a COVID-19 batch form that can be completed for these requests. There is also an individual student form, which is now fillable, that can be completed. Like last year, districts may choose between completing the batch form or the individual student form.

Connecticut State Department of Education