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• By Lizdelia Piñón, Ed.D.• IDRA Newsletter • September 2026 •

Multilingual students with disabilities should not have to navigate separate systems for language and disability services. Lizdelia Piñón, Ed.D., outlines five ways school districts can improve evaluation, coordinate services, redesign MTSS, partner with families and build stronger systems.

When a multilingual student struggles in school, educators often begin by asking: Is it language, or is it a disability? That question sounds reasonable, but it creates a false choice.

Children do not arrive at school in pieces: Here is my Spanish-speaking piece. Here is my disability piece.

A student does not stop being multilingual when entering special education, and a disability does not disappear during bilingual or English as a second language instruction.

Unfortunately, schools often do not identify or equitably serve emergent bilingual students across special education categories and settings. We see patterns of both over- and under-identification depending on the disability category and context.

Students who need both services experience lower rates of inclusion in general education settings. And they have lower high school graduation rates than non-emergent bilingual students with disabilities. (Craven & Piñón, 2024; Cooc, 2023)

Latina author Gloria Anzaldúa wrote, “Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity. I am my language” (1987). Her words stress that children cannot simply leave language at the schoolhouse door. Language connects to family, culture, memory, relationships and identity.

This is especially important for multilingual students with disabilities. These students cannot divide themselves into a language need for one school department, a disability for another, and a cultural identity that is acknowledged only during special events. Each brings one whole, complex and capable self.

It is our educational system that divides services into separate programs. But a child should never have to leave their language, culture, communication or disability-related needs at the public classroom door simply because adults have organized services into separate departments.

For me, this work is both professional and deeply personal. I was once an emergent bilingual student myself. I later became a bilingual and ESL teacher, then an advocate and mother of multilingual children with disabilities. Each of those experiences shapes how I see the gaps between language and disability services and how urgently we need to close them.

They also led me to IDRA and to the opportunity to represent IDRA on the state-appointed committee that helped develop the Texas State Board of Education-approved bilingual special education teacher certificate. This intersection of language, disability, family and education is not just an area of my work. It is my heart’s work.

The school identified my daughter Frida as an emergent bilingual student from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. Although she showed signs of a reading disability, the school did not identify her dyslexia until sixth grade.

For years, schools treated her language development and disability as competing explanations instead of connected parts of her learning profile. How many students like Frida are still waiting? Below are five things school districts should do differently to serve these students.

A child should never have to leave their language, culture, communication or disability-related needs at the public classroom door simply because adults have organized services into separate departments.

Stop Asking “Language or Disability?”

The right question is: What is this student’s complete learning profile, and what evidence do we need to understand it?

An effective school evaluation considers the student’s language history, opportunities to learn, proficiency across language domains, skills in other languages, prior instruction, work samples, intervention data and family observations. It also accounts for motor, sensory and communication needs that may affect how the student demonstrates knowledge.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires school districts to use multiple assessment tools, include information provided by parents or guardians, avoid relying on a single measure, and administer assessments in the child’s native language or other mode of communication in the form most likely to yield accurate information. Chosen assessments also must ensure that sensory, motor or speaking disabilities do not distort the results (34 C.F.R. § 300.304).

School districts should include certified professionals with knowledge of disability and second-language development on evaluation teams. A bilingual evaluation is not simply an English test translated into another language. It requires interpreting data within the child’s linguistic, cultural and educational history.

Provide Both Services – and Connect Them

Families should never be asked to choose between language services and disability-related services for their children. Federal civil rights guidance states that students who qualify for both must receive both. Delaying one service because of the other, scheduling services against each other, or forcing families to select only one may violate federal law (OCR, 2024).

IDEA also requires the individualized education program team to consider a student’s language needs as they relate to their individualized education program (IEP) (34 C.F.R. § 300.324). Language should shape instruction, communication, goals, accommodations, related services, behavior supports and progress monitoring.

In Texas, the language proficiency assessment committee (LPAC) and admission, review and dismissal (ARD) committee should not function as parallel teams that merely exchange paperwork. They should share data, coordinate decisions and include professionals who understand language development and disability. The student’s schedule should protect access to both services.

A child should not lose bilingual or ESL services because the child has an IEP. A child should not have special education services delayed because the child is still developing English. These are not competing programs. Both are part of the students’ right to access education.

Redesign MTSS So It Is Not a Waiting Room

The Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework that many schools use to identify and assist students can help schools respond early, but only when the framework is designed for multilingual learners. Too often, educators are told to wait until a student “learns more English” before considering an evaluation. In other cases, schools deliver an English-only intervention without language support and treat the student’s lack of response as evidence of disability.

Education researchers caution that many MTSS interventions and progress-monitoring tools were developed for monolingual English-speaking students. Experts recommend multiple forms of data, linguistically appropriate instruction and comparisons with students who have similar language-learning experiences (REL Northeast & Islands, 2021).

Strong Tier 1 instruction, meaning the core instruction provided to all students, should include explicit language development, grade-level content, visuals, modeling, opportunities to use the home language and regular checks for understanding.

IDRA’s work on equity-centered pedagogies reminds leaders to embed culturally sustaining practices across policy, instruction and family engagement, not added as isolated strategies (Piñón, 2022).

MTSS should help teams make better decisions. It must never become a waiting room or a reason to postpone an evaluation due to suspected disability.

Make Families Partners, Not Visitors

Language access for families is more than handing them a translated document after the school has made decisions. Families need qualified interpretation during meetings, understandable explanations before consent is requested, translated notices, and meaningful opportunities to ask questions and disagree.

The federal Title VI requires meaningful communication with families in languages they understand. Federal guidance says that failing to provide interpretation or translated disability-related information as a practice that may violate civil rights law (OCR, 2024).

IDRA has long emphasized family leadership, not simply parent participation. Strong systems amplify family voices, recognize families’ strengths and ensure they understand their rights, and include them in decision-making (Craven & Piñón, 2024).

A family’s knowledge of their child provides critical information and data. Parents can explain how their child communicates, what the child understands in the home language, how the child responds in different environments, what has changed over time, and which supports work outside school. The school should document that knowledge and consider it alongside formal assessment results.

Families should not need to speak legal or academic English to be believed. Authentic translation provides access; genuine partnership shares power.

Build a Workforce and System that Can See the Intersection

Teachers cannot fix fragmented systems by themselves. School district leaders must provide ongoing learning for bilingual and ESL teachers, special educators, general educators, evaluators, related service providers and administrators.

They also must create collaboration time, assign responsibility for coordinating services and examine outcomes specifically for multilingual students with disabilities.

Texas’ recent approval of standards for a new bilingual special education teacher certificate is an important step. The standards emphasize integrated pedagogy, evidence-based practices, an asset-based approach, collaborative decision-making and advocacy (TEA, 2025).

But school districts cannot wait until 2028 for a new certification exam to begin changing practice.

They can start now by reviewing evaluations, IEPs, schedules, staffing, interventions, discipline and family communication. They can disaggregate data, so these students are visible. And they can ask whether their systems expect children to fit existing programs or whether programs are designed to fit children.

IDRA founder Dr. José A. Cárdenas argued that when students’ characteristics and an instructional program do not align, the school must adapt to the students, not demand that students change who they are (1995; Duggins-Clay, 2024).

Where language and disability meet should not be the place where students disappear between programs. It should be the place where our systems finally come together to see, support and celebrate the whole child.

Resources

Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Aunt Lute Books.

Bowen, J. (October 16, 2024). Ofelia García Shares Importance of Translanguaging Pedagogies During Linguistic Diversity Speaker Series Organized by Goodnight Distinguished Professor Maria Coady. North Carolina State College of Education.

Cárdenas, J.A. (1995). Legal Basis of Bilingual Education – An Excerpt. In Multicultural Education: A Generation of Advocacy.

Cooc, N. (January 2023). National Trends in Special Education and Academic Outcomes for English Learners with Disabilities. The Journal of Special Education, 57(2), 106-117.

Craven, M., & Piñón, L. (April 2024). Navigating Policy Landscapes for Linguistic and Cultural Equity. IDRA Newsletter.

Duggins-Clay, P. (April 2024). Language Rights are Civil Rights – 50th Anniversary of the Lau v. Nichols Ruling. IDRA Newsletter.

Piñón, L. (April 2022). Why Emergent Bilingual Education Needs Equity-Centered Pedagogies. IDRA Newsletter.

Piñón, L. (September 2025). Breakthrough for Students – Texas State Board Approves Standards for New Bilingual Special Education Teacher Certificate. IDRA Newsletter.

REL Northeast & Islands. (February 2021). Resources for Determining Special Education Eligibility of English Learners. Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

OCR. (November 2024). Equal Access to Elementary and Secondary Education for Students Who Are English Learners with Disabilities. U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights.

TEA. (October 2025). §235.137. Bilingual Special Education Standards: Early Childhood-Grade 12. Classroom Teacher Certification Standards, pp 23-28.

Vogel, S., & García, O. (December 2017). Translanguaging. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford University Press.

Lizdelia Piñón, Ed.D., is an IDRA education associate (lizdelia.pinon@idra.org).

FAQs

Can a multilingual student receive both bilingual or ESL services and special education services?

Yes. Students who qualify for both should receive both language services and disability-related services. Schools should coordinate those services rather than requiring families to choose between them.

How should schools evaluate multilingual students for disabilities?

Schools should consider the student’s complete learning profile, including language history, opportunities to learn, proficiency across languages, prior instruction, work samples, intervention data, family observations, and motor, sensory or communication needs.

Can schools wait until a student learns more English before evaluating for a disability?

Schools should not use language development as a reason to postpone an evaluation when a disability is suspected. MTSS should support better decision-making rather than become a waiting period before evaluation.

What role should families play in special education decisions for multilingual students?

Families should receive understandable information and qualified language assistance and have meaningful opportunities to participate in decisions. Their knowledge about how their child communicates, learns and responds in different environments is important evaluation data.

What is bilingual special education?

Bilingual special education brings together expertise in language development and disability so multilingual students with disabilities can receive coordinated instruction and services that address their complete learning needs.

[© 2026, IDRA. This article originally appeared in the September edition of the IDRA Newsletter. Permission to reproduce this article is granted provided the article is reprinted in its entirety and proper credit is given to IDRA and the author.]