Bilingual Education Enrollment for Multilingual English Learner-Classified Students with Disabilities: Evidence from Oregon

• In Event: Interrogating Access to Bilingual Programs for Multilingual Learners with Disabilities

Abstract

Objectives/Purposes
Families, educators, and researchers have reported that multilingual learners with disabilities have reduced access to bilingual education programs (e.g., Cioé-Peña, 2020, 2021; Sánchez López, 2022). However, large-scale data about bilingual program enrollment for multilingual learners with disabilities is limited, and when available, is typically not disaggregated by disability category (Delavan et al., 2024). Drawing on 11 years of student-level longitudinal data from Oregon, we compare bilingual program enrollment for students with and without disabilities and analyze variation in bilingual program enrollment by disability category.

Perspective(s)/Theoretical Framework
We draw on the conceptual framework of LangCrit, which interrogates the intersection of multiple forms of oppression, including those based on language, disability, and race (Delavan et al., 2024). This framework helps us understand how linguistic oppression, ableism, and racism are all part of the multiple marginalizations that multilingual learners with disabilities face.

Methods and Data Sources
This analysis draws on statewide student-level, longitudinal data from the 2013-14 through 2023-24 school years provided by the Oregon Department of Education. Because bilingual program enrollment data in Oregon is only available for students classified as English learners (ELs), our analysis focuses on this important group within the larger multilingual learner population. The sample includes students enrolled in districts in which at least one bilingual program was offered. The resulting sample for the current study included 326,402 observations of 100,889 students within 814 schools in 76 districts.

We used logistic fixed effects regression models to estimate the probability of bilingual program enrollment. The key variable of interest in our first set of models was disability status, and in our second set of models, the key variables of interest were a set of indicators for disability category. Models also included a set of covariates for structural, demographic, and organizational factors potentially also related to bilingual program enrollment. A key organizational factor was special education placement type, capturing the percentage of time in which students were in general education.

Results
Findings indicate that, after accounting for structural, demographic, and organizational factors, multilingual EL-classified students with disabilities were 31% less likely than other EL-classified students to be enrolled in a bilingual program. In addition, results showed substantial and significant variation in bilingual program enrollment by disability category. For example, analysis suggests that students with autism and students with emotional disturbance were about half as likely to be enrolled in bilingual programs compared to those with speech or language impairments. Findings indicated that special education placement type had a significant relationship to bilingual program enrollment. Those with the same disability who were placed in general education settings for 80% or more of the day were much more likely to be in bilingual programs than those with more restrictive placements.

Scientific/scholarly significance
Findings demonstrate the pressing need to expand access to bilingual programs for multilingual students with disabilities. In particular, we call on educators and researchers to collaborate across special education and multilingual education to design bilingual programs in which multilingual students with more complex support needs can be meaningfully included.

Authors

• Karen D. Thompson, Oregon State University

• Katherine Bromley, University of Oregon

• Ilana M. Umansky, University of Oregon

• Nami Shin, University of Kansas