Beyond Compliance: Educators as Policy Interpreters in the Waiving of English Learner Services

• In Event: (Re)shaping Multilingual Learners’ Schooling: Educators as Translators of Language Policy

Abstract

Purpose
Waiving English learner (EL) services is a little-understood and opaque process in U.S. schools, despite being protected by federal law. This study examines how educators responsible for implementing EL services communicate the option to waive services, drawing on interviews with educators across Oregon. Although it’s required that families are formally notified of their right to waive services, this communication is often limited to formats with little opportunity for dialogue. The resulting variability in how, when, and whether educators engage families in more substantive discussions raises questions about how rights are understood and exercised. In Oregon, where nearly a quarter of EL-designated students waive services (Thompson et al., in press), the scale of this practice underscores the need to understand how the policy is interpreted and enacted at the school level.

This study asks:
1. How do educators communicate the option of waiving EL services to families?
2. What institutional and ideological factors shape whether and how educators raise waiving as an option?

Theoretical Framework
Drawing on street-level bureaucracy (Lipsky, 1980) and raciolinguistic ideologies (Flores & Rosa, 2015), I conceptualize educators not just as policy implementers, but as ideologically-motivated actors who translate, mediate, and—intentionally or not—shape access to rights.

Methods & Data Sources
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 secondary educators from geographically diverse Oregon districts, sampled to reflect variation in district EL enrollment. Initial inductive coding identified recurring themes in educators’ descriptions of the waiving process, followed by iterative rounds of pattern coding. CDA was then applied to interrogate how educators’ language reflected institutional logics and assumptions. This approach examined both educators’ talk on waiving and its role in upholding or resisting dominant ideologies.

Results
Preliminary findings suggest that educator discretion plays a significant role in shaping knowledge of rights. Some actively ensure families understand waiving; others avoid the topic unless prompted. Rationales for withholding or selectively offering information include a desire to protect students from perceived harm, fear of professional repercussions, or a personal commitment to family agency. These sometimes rested upon implicit beliefs about student capability and linguistic legitimacy. Resulting variation raises critical concerns about institutional accountability and how schools communicate educational rights to linguistically and racially minoritized families.

Scholarly Significance
This paper contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the waiving of EL services (Oh, 2022; Oh & Mancilla-Martinez, 2024; Thompson et al., in press), with attention to how multilingual students and their families navigate systems. It offers insight into how discretion functions at the point of information-sharing—a stage with profound implications for equity. By highlighting the mechanisms through which rights are made selectively accessible, this study calls for more transparent, equity-driven approaches to policy communication, particularly around decisions that carry long-term academic consequences (Thompson et al., 2024). In line with this year’s theme of “Unforgetting Histories and Imagining Futures,” this study aims to unearth how exclusionary practices persist even within frameworks of formal inclusion, and by imagining new roles for educators as agents of policy translation and advocacy.

Author

• Janette Dalila Avelar, University of Oregon