[Edling] 5 March | The ESSA Waiver Landscape and Implications for K-12 English Learners

[Francis M. Hult via Edling]

The ESSA Waiver Landscape and Implications for K-12 English Learners

Where: Webinar

When:
Thursday, March 5, 2026

3:00 P.M. ET (DC, NYC) / 2:00 P.M. CT (Chicago) / 1:00 P.M. MT (Denver) /
12:00 P.M. PT (Los Angeles)

Speakers:

Megan Hopkins, Professor & Chair, Department of Education Studies,
University of California, San Diego

Trish Morita-Mullaney, Professor, English Language Learning, Purdue
University

Dave Powell, Senior Consultant, Education First
Moderator:

Delia Pompa, Senior Fellow for Education Policy, MPI

As states begin to take up the U.S. Secretary of Education’s offer to apply
for waivers to their obligations under the Every Student Succeeds Act
(ESSA) of 2015, there are significant implications for English Learner (EL)
students around the country.

In July 2025, the U.S. Department of Education issued a letter encouraging
states to seek waivers to their federal mandate to improve student academic
achievement and maximize the impact of federal education funding. One
state, Iowa, received waiver approval last month, and several other states
have begun the waiver request process.

ESSA outlines statutory requirements that not only fund public education,
but also provide guardrails to ensure all students, regardless of their
background or community, have access to a quality education that prepares
them to achieve in today’s world. The law also grants the Secretary of
Education the authority to waive certain requirements outlined in the law,
which has long been viewed as ensuring that ELs and all other students
receive an equitable, quality education.

While states have long had the ability to seek waivers, the Trump
administration’s efforts to end the federal role in education, including by
diminishing civil-rights oversight of schools, and attempts to cut program
funding for particular populations, such as ELs, underscore the importance
of understanding the potential implications of these actions for ELs and
their communities.

This webinar will bring together a panel of experts to discuss the ESSA
waiver process and requirements, an overview of current state waivers and
their objectives, and what these developments might mean in practice for
ELs and the schools they attend.

Register here:
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/events/essa-waiver-implications-k-12-english-learners
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/edling/attachments/20260303/352eba92/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------


_______________________________________________
Edling mailing list
Edling at lists.mail.umbc.edu
https://lists.mail.umbc.edu/mailman/listinfo/edling