Multilingual learners (often referred to as English learners or ELs) are a diverse group of students who range from emergent bilingual students to long-term English learners. These students have a language other than English as their primary or home language. Unique teaching and support, known as sheltered instruction, is employed to provide equitable educational opportunities. Multilingual students are eligible to receive a variety of services and participate in programs that will help them learn academic content and become skilled in their full linguistic repertoire.

The goal of our department is to support the district’s mission, vision, and values to ensure the success of our multilingual learners. Each component of our programming is designed to create equitable opportunities for students to master content and develop academic language. In so doing, we can see our core belief that “education transforms lives” is realized in the learning of all students.

Garland ISD currently services over 19,000 English learners making up 30% of our student population.  These students represent over 62 languages spoken with the most common being Spanish, Vietnamese, Amharic, Arabic and Malayalam. 

Enrolling in the district

When first enrolling in Garland ISD, all students whose first language is other than English will enroll via the Student Services office rather than at a campus. This allows for language testing and other support for these students. See the Enrollment page for more information.

Supporting English Learners

Our different teams in the department are dedicated to supporting our English Learners academically, socially and emotionally:

• Our Compliance team ensures that we are meeting the expectations set forth by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) in ensuring English Learners are identified and supported. 
• We pride ourselves in ensuring that all our programs follow the Sheltered Instruction framework to ensure all students acquire content and develop academic language. 
• At the Elementary level, we serve our students through Dual Language Spanish, Dual Language Vietnamese and ESL. 
• At the Secondary levels, we serve our students through multiple middle school and high school specialty classes.
• We have specialized Newcomer support at both the Elementary and Secondary levels to ensure our students who are new to the US education system make a smooth transition. 
• Our ELL Family Support team works to increase and strengthen family and community engagement of families of our English Language Learners (ELLs) or Limited English Proficient (LEP) students. Partnerships with our ELLs and LEP families are critical to student success. We strive to provide an extra layer of support so that schools and families can work together as equal partners to ensure our multilingual learners attain English proficiency and develop high levels of academic achievement. When our families know more about our school system and the local educational policies they are better equipped to support their students.

 Watch our video to learn more about the ELL department and our services.