How One State Is Fixing Bureaucratic Hurdles for English Learners

Researchers and advocates across the country are applauding new legislation that streamlines how students exit English-learner status in California.

For years, English learners in the Golden State had to meet four criteria to reclassify out of needing English-language development programs including an academic criterion which varied by district.

Assembly Bill 2555, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in late September, effective immediately

requires English learners to meet just one criterion for reclassification: a specific threshold on the state’s English-language proficiency assessment, or the alternative language assessment for English learners with disabilities.

The new law will also automate the reclassification process by the 2027-28 school year, ensuring students are designated as ready to reclassify once the language proficiency criterion is met. Additionally, the law also requires four years of monitoring reclassified students to ensure they succeed and to provide support as needed.

With this legislation, California joins 28 other states that base reclassification decisions solely on student performance on English-language proficiency tests, according to a new nationwide analysis

by the think tank New America based on state policies as of 2025.

The streamlined criteria and automated process aim to help students reclassify on time, granting them access to academic opportunities they might otherwise miss out on by remaining English learners for too long, researchers say.

“It’s great to see a leader like California moving in a direction that’s backed by research,” said Caroline Bartlett, an assistant professor of education policy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who studies state reclassification processes.

Procedural changes can make a difference

The procedural shifts underway in California have made a major difference when implemented elsewhere.

In 2020, Michigan automated its reclassification process after years of a manual approach akin to California’s. The result? Students who met the state’s reclassification criteria were 35 percentage points more likely to reclassify

, according to an analysis by Bartlett.

In a qualitative study published in October Bartlett interviewed educators who worked with English learners before and after Michigan’s automation. Participants noted a significant administrative burden associated with manually reclassifying students and shared that an automated process reduces dependence on uneven local capacity.

Districts with large English learner populations may have had staff who were well-trained and experienced in reclassifying students, while districts with few such students may not have been as well equipped.

Automation also helped eliminate subjective judgment, Bartlett said, noting that some educators in the past may have acted on explicit or racial bias, while others acted on a well-intentioned protective instinct to retain students in English-learner services, even when those students were proficient in the language.

In California, the new law not only automates reclassification, but also undoes the highly subjective academic criterion previously used, advocates said.

One district might have used state standardized test scores while another used report cards, and yet another relied on local benchmark assessments.

“Students with a similar performance actually could be reclassified in one district, but not in another,” said Martha Hernandez, the executive director of the advocacy coalition Californians Together, which focuses on multilingual learner education and advocated for AB 2555.

At the heart of all these procedural changes is the need to reclassify students on time

.

“When students remain English learners too long, the research shows increased risk of exclusion from core curriculum, limited access to Advanced Placement and college prep courses. There’s segregation from peers, tracking into lower-level courses. There are lower teacher expectations for these students,” Hernandez said.

How California can set a monitoring example

While the legislation helps California catch up with procedural changes other states made years ago, it also offers an opportunity to lead.

Not all states continually monitor reclassified students, and these reclassified students are often treated as English-only students as opposed to multilingual students, said Ilana Umansky, an associate professor in the College of Education at the University of Oregon.

“Students are going to need to continue to be in language-rich classrooms that are supporting language development in the content areas, and so that’s going to be important that we work on having that strong instruction for recently reclassified students in general education classrooms,” Umansky said.

California educators will now be tasked with monitoring reclassified students for four years, and the state must publicly report reclassification rates and outcomes.

All of this will require state guidance and support.

“It’s going to be important that California doesn’t just say, ‘OK, [AB] 2555 is passed, and now we march forward to the next thing.’ But really, pay attention to how it’s being implemented, what its implications are for different kinds of English learners in different kinds of settings, and then make adjustments as needed to make sure that it’s having the intended effects that we wanted to have,” Umansky said.