The U.S. Department of Justice released guidance to federal agencies on July 14 on how to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order from March declaring English the nation’s official language.
While experts on English-learner education saw no immediate effects for K-12 schools, they say the new guidance, alongside several recent federal policy changes this year affecting English learners, raises concerns about the executive order’s broader implications for public education.
“The [Department of Justice] will lead a coordinated effort to minimize non-essential multilingual services, redirect resources toward English-language education and assimilation, and ensure compliance with legal obligations through targeted measures where necessary,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a memo to federal agencies.
The department advises agencies, where legally permitted, to determine which of their programs, grants, and policies could be better served by operating exclusively in English.
Meanwhile, $890 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education intended to support K-12 students’ acquisition of the English language, known as the Title III-A program, were among the billions the Trump administration withheld from schools in early July.
Trump also called for the elimination of these federal dollars for the 2026-27 school year. The federal office that once provided key support for states and districts on how to help English learners advance in their English-language proficiency has been reduced to one employee, following mass layoffs at the Education Department earlier this year.
“We’re put in a position where, we want you to learn English, but at the same time, we’re going to de-emphasize anything that will help provide you the opportunity to learn English,” said Jeff Hutcheson, the director of advocacy and public policy at TESOL International Association, a professional association focusing on English-language teaching.
As experts await further guidance, they are already concerned that schools may pursue English-only instruction for English learners, and fall short in meeting families’ needs for translation and interpretation services.
Research backs multilingualism for learning English
The immediate actions the Justice Department plans to take include completing “a full internal inventory of all existing non-English services, and release Department-wide plans to phase out unnecessary multilingual offerings,” the memo said.
It adds that the agency will also “consider redirecting these funds towards research and programs that would expedite English-language acquisition and increase English-language proficiency and assimilation.”
Research, however, already points out that people are better able to learn a world language like English when their own home language is also uplifted in the process, Hutcheson said.
Dual language immersion programs, where academic content is taught in both English and another world language during the school day, has proven to be one of the best ways for K-12 students to learn English over time, said Conor Williams, a senior fellow who researches multilingual education at the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.
Past legislative efforts also suggest that English-only instruction may not be the most appropriate way to meet the goal of all students mastering the English language quickly and efficiently.
Williams noted that in the late 1990s, some states, including California, passed English-only instruction laws based on the assumption that multilingual programming hindered English acquisition and academic success. He said there was an implication with these laws that multilingual programming would hinder immigrants’ cultural integration efforts.
But these education models did not work well for students and the laws backing them were eventually overturned, Williams said.
“Nobody wants to prevent immigrants from learning English or newcomer families from accessing English,” Williams said. “The actual argument is, do we want them to have access to public services as they learn English? And do we think that there’s any value in maintaining their home language abilities as they learn English, or in supporting their home language abilities as they learn English?”
Experts worry families’ access to translation services
Another concern experts raised regarding the Justice Department guidance is whether families will continue to have access to information about their children’s schooling in a language they understand.
One of the biggest challenges both now and predating the current administration is school districts’ ability to translate and interpret information for families whose home language is not English, Hutcheson said.
Given federal agencies’ new guidelines on language access, and the layoffs in the Education Department’s office for civil rights, experts fear that schools may lapse in providing needed language services for families.
Kathleen Leos, former director of the federal office of English language acquisition under former President George W. Bush, is also concerned about whether there will be ongoing enforcement of English learners’ educational rights granted by U.S. Supreme Court cases.
“There’s every indication that at the state level and at the district level, there’s not going to be enforcement about following the Supreme Court cases to educate all students, but most especially language learners, in the most effective way that research has proven that works,” Leos said.
