The bilingual department assist schools with mainstreaming strategies and with academic support for LEP students entering English classrooms. After three years they must give a reason for continuing a LEP student in a LEP program. Common reasons include no prior schooling or absenteeism. In practice, it is not unusual for LEP students to spend a fourth year in the program. The exit criteria are set at the 35th Percentile Rank on CTBS reading, math, and language arts, and a passing score on an English writing sample.
Chinese students exit the self-contained program long before they are reclassified.
The LPAC must notify parents of students who exit programs. The LPAC will continue to monitor exited students for two years to determine whether or not the student is academically successful. Academic success is based on mastery of TAAS and passing grades. After-school tutoring was identified by students as critical to their transition to mainstream classes. There is no programmatic change for Spanish-speaking LEP students, except advancing ESL levels.