UCLA

There is an ever-increasing rate of immigrant origin children in the United States where at least one parent speaks a language other than English. This has directly resulted in an increase number of English Learners (EL) being served in both general education and special education, including children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). California statewide reports show that on average, 88% of EL students become reclassified as English proficient by 8th grade but little to none is known about the time to reclassification for students who are both EL and autistic. The aims of the present study were to examine the characteristics, time to English proficiency, and educational placement for dually identified EL students with ASD in a large urban school district across the 2011-2019 academic school years. Overall, dually identified students (N=201) became English proficient at low rates and at older ages. Being reclassified also impacted the educational placement of students as EL students with ASD were less likely to be placed in general education settings. The present study begins to illustrate the time to English proficiency of dually identified students and the impact it has on their educational opportunities.