Serving English Language Learners

Table of Contents

Serving English Language Learners

Statutory and Regulatory Requirements

Enrolling and Transferring Students in WVEIS

Enrolling Students

Identifying private school ELL students in WVEIS

Student Data Edits

Exit Status X with no exit date

ELL student with no entry date

ELL students in the R district without an EC code

ELL student receiving services with an exit date

ELL students without a course code

October Certification

End of Year Certification Submission

Title III Director’s Role

Step-by-Step Instructions for Title III Directors

Superintendent’s Role

Step-by-Step Instructions for Superintendents

Frequently Asked Questions

What is meant by "equitable" participation by public and private school students and educational personnel in a Title III program?

Must a school district's Title III program design be the same for both public and private school students and educational personnel?

What recourse is available if a school district will not use its Title III funds to provide equitable services to private school children and educational personnel?

Are private school students receiving Title III services required to participate in the West Virginia Test of English Language Learning (WESTELL assessment) that is required of public school students receiving Title III services?

Does the Title III requirement on language qualifications for teachers providing Title III services to public school students apply to teachers providing these services to private school students?

Who do I contact for WVEIS support?

Statutory and Regulatory Requirements

After timely and meaningful consultation with appropriate private school officials, county school systems that receive Title III funds must provide educational services to English language learners (ELL) children and educational personnel in private schools that are located in the geographic area served by the school district.

To ensure timely and meaningful consultation, the school district must consult with appropriate private school officials during the design and development of the Title III program on issues such as:

  1. How the ELL children's needs will be identified.
  2. What services will be offered.
  3. How, where and by whom the services will be provided.
  4. How the services will be assessed and how the results of the assessment will be used to improve those services.
  5. The size and scope of the services to be provided to the private school children and educational personnel.
  6. The amount of funds available for those services.
  7. How and when the school district will make decisions about the delivery of services, including a thorough consideration of the views of the private school officials on the provision of contract services through potential third-party providers.

Title III services provided to children and educational personnel in private schools must be equitable and timely and address their educational needs.

Funds provided for educational services for private school children and educational personnel must be equal, taking into account the number and educational needs of those children, to the funds provided for participating public school children.

Title III services provided to private school children and educational personnel must be secular, neutral, and non-ideological.

School districts may serve private school ELL children and educational personnel either directly or through contracts with public and private agencies, organizations and institutions.

The control of funds used to provide services and the title to materials and equipment purchased with those funds must be retained by the school district.

Services for private school children and educational personnel must be provided by employees of the school district or through a contract made by the school district with a third party.

Providers of services to private school children and educational personnel must be independent of the private school and of any religious organization, and the providers' employment or contract must be under the control and supervision of the school district.

Funds used to provide services to private school children and educational personnel must not be commingled with nonfederal funds.

Enrolling and Transferring Students in WVEIS

Every student enrolling in West Virginia public schools receives a unique student number. The number is nine digits long and identifies the studentduring their years in the state public school system. The number is used to track students for state and federal accountability andreporting. The student number is created by combining the two digit district number,where the student initially enrolled in the West Virginia public school system, and a seven digits number generated froma unique district counter.

The exception to this numbering rule is any student initially enrolled at one ofWest Virginia’s Institutional Education Programs. When a student transfers froman Institutional Education Program to a public school district for the first time, the student receives a new student ID.The student ID is automatically generated, when the student is selected fromthe statewideunassigned data area for the district, as if the student was a new student in the public school system.

Only selected information is available when students transfer between districts. When a student is withdrawn, a copy of the following information is made in the statewide files. The original information remains in the originating district’s files. If information changes in the district files the statewidefile does not change. When a student enrolls in a new district the information is moved from the statewide files to the enrolling districts files.

Basic Student Information

Student Family/Contact Information

Emergency Information

Enrollment History (Current Year)

Summarized Absence History

Student Transcripts

Student Immunizations (No Notes)

Student Discipline

Tag Information

English Language Learners Record

Special Education Records PECIAL EDUCATION RECORDS

CNP Codes File (Direct Cert Only)

It is essential when enrolling students to use the legal name (from the birth certificate if possible), correct spelling and social security number (if provided). This assists in preventing duplication of records. Student records may be in the statewide files for years before they are accessed, if the student transferred out of the West Virginia public school system.

Once a student enrolls in a district a copy of their records remains inthe districts files.

Enrolling Students

Use the standardized codes found in theStandards for Student Demographics and Enrollmentdocument when maintaining student records.

All students enrolling in a school must be entered usingSTU.301, Basic Student Information.

Click Add Student to begin enrolling a student.

Complete the Add student screen.

  1. The Current District and School will automaticallybe populated by the user restrictions.
  2. Enter the student’s Last Name, First Name and Middle Name as it appears on the student’s birth certificate. The last name and first name are required fields.
  3. The Other field may be used to enter a nickname orname before a name change.
  4. Enter the student’s Gender M- Male and F – Female
  5. Enter the student’s date of birth, birth city and state
  6. If provided enter the student’s social security number

As you work through the process of enrolling a student you may receive warnings or errors. Below you will notice that we received a warning stating the social security number would be useful. This message was received because the social security number was left blank. This is not a required field and can be left blank.

  1. Click next, review all warnings and correcting any errors.

The system will perform a duplicate student search on enrolled students. If any results are found they will be listed in the screen below. Our student example didn’t return any duplicate students.

  1. Review any duplicate students returned
  2. Click Next

Once the duplicate search is completed for enrolled students the system then performs a duplicate search on unassigned students. Unassigned students are students that are no longer enrolled at a school in your district.

  1. Review any duplicate students returned
  2. Click Next

Once the duplicate searches are complete then you are presented with a screen listing any health records associated with the student. In our case we have a new student so there are no health records.

  1. Review any information returned
  2. Click Next

The next set of screens will allow you to begin entering student data. We are going to first enter the student’s Primary guardian information.

  1. Click on the Unspecified Guardian link

You will record the guardian’s information including Name, home address, mailing address, work information, phone numbers and email address. It is also here you should specify the type of written communication that should be provided to the guardian. At the bottom of the screen you will see that I have placed checks on the communication types, labels, report card, attendance letter, discipline letter, and schedule. If the student has multiple family guardians you can specify different communications for each.

  1. Record guardian’s information
  2. Click Submit

Once done recording guardian information you can begin recording the student attributes such as year of graduation, native language, race, etc. You will notice that there is a hand holding a piece of paper beside some of the attributes. If you click on this you will get an option list to choose from. This is useful when you do not know the specific codes.


Here I have shown an example of the options for enrollment codes. You would review the codes and choose the one that meets the criteria for your student. After completing the student’s attributes you will click Finish. After clicking Finish you will receive a message indicating the student has been added.

  1. Continue recording the student’s information
  2. Click Finish

You will receive a message stating the student has been added.

Identifyingprivate school ELL students in WVEIS

In order for a private school ELL student to be counted in the Title III funding allocation, the student must be correctly enrolled in WVEIS. The enrollment of a private school ELL student is much like the enrollment for a public school student. The differences between enrolling a public school student and private school student are the following:

  1. Enroll the student within the R district
  2. When enrolling the student within a school you will need to know how the schools are setup inyour district. You will either enroll the student within the private school if it exists or the public school where the student would attend if he/she were a public school student.
  3. The FTE field is used anytime an enrollment code of EC is used when enrolling a student. The FTE value is the amount of time the student is attending the public school to receive ESL.
  4. Use the enrollment code “EC”. The EC enrollment code is used for students attending school part-time.
  1. Enter the student information on the ELL Screen.
  2. When entering the private school student’s schedule, only the ESL course code is required. The course code is: 4115 ENG SEC LANG

Note: If the EC code is used for enrollment and the FTE field is left blank the student does not count in state enrollment, accountability, or federal reporting.

When searching for a student who was enrolled in the R district you must

  1. Chose the R district from the drop down
  2. The school is optional, you can chose the school to help limit the results returned by the search.
  3. You can enter any portion of student number, name, tag, birth date, etc. to search for a student. In our example below we have entered the student number. All students matching the search criteria will be listed.

Student Data Edits

The student data edits will help you identify students that may be incorrectly setup within WVEIS.The student data edits include items that are in error and items that need to be reviewed for accuracy. There are 3 categories of edits.

  1. Error
  2. Warnings
  3. Informational

An error occurs when student information within WVEIS is incorrect or incomplete. You will receive an error when you have an ELL student with the status of X –Exited with no exit date. A warning indicates a piece of information that does not match suggested business logic. You will receive a warning for ELL students who do not have the ESL course code assigned. This warning is provided because WVDE pulls the data for reporting and for integrating with the ELPHA test. An informational edit provides a list of students who meet specific criteria. The data edits include a list of foreign exchange students. You are encouraged to review the student list to ensure student information is correctly identified within the data system.

Errors that directly relate to ELL students are listed in the table below. The table is not an all-inclusive list. There are other edits in which you should ensure your students are not included. For example, if a student is less than 4 or older than 21 as of September 1, they will not be included in your funding student count. It will be most important during the October Collection for you to ensure all of your students are enrolled without error. Data quality, integrity and accuracy is very important to ensure accurate reporting. With your assistance in identifying additional data edits WVDE will continually add to the student data edits as you assist us in improving data quality, integrity and accuracy.

Edit Category / Edit Name / Edit Description
Error / Exit Status X with no exit date / An ELL students with exit status (X) must have an exit date.
Error / ELL student with no entry date / An ELL Student must have an entry date.
Error / ELL students in the R district without an EC code / An ELL Student within the R district should have an EC enrollment code.
Error / ELL student receiving services with an exit date / An ELL Student must not have an exit date if they are receiving services.
Warning / ELL students without a course code / An ELL students without a course code. They must have a course code.

Data edits is a tool that allows you to ensure that data is accurate at any point during the school year. Depending upon mobility of students within your district you should visit student data edits as often as weekly but at least monthly.

Exit Status X with no exit date

This error will affect the ELL student count in both the October and EOY collection, federal reporting and your ELL student count. The error will list all ELL students with a status of exited where no exit date was supplied.

To resolve the error access the student’s record through STU.301 - Maintain Student Information, click on the ELL tab, and enter a date into the ESL Exit Date.

ELL student with no entry date

This error will affect the ELL student count in both the October and EOY collection, federal reporting and your ELL student count. The error will list all ELL students with no entry date supplied.

To resolve the error access the student’s record through STU.301 - Maintain Student Information, click on the ELL tab, and enter a date into the ESL Entry Date.

ELL students in the R district without an EC code

This error will affect the ELL student count in both the October and EOY collection, federal reporting and your ELL student count. The error will list all ELL students enrolled in the R district who do not have an EC enrollment code. There are other data edits related to this error. You may also want to review the error for students with an EC enrollment code with a zero FTE. A student enrolled in the R district indicates the student is attending a Private or Parochial school.

To resolve this error you will need to change the enrollment code to EC by accessing the student’s record through STU.301 – Maintain Student Information, click on enrollment, and click on the enrollment date. This displays the enrollment information. Change the entry code to the EC enrollment code.