English Learners
There were 70,500 students in Chicago public schools designated as English Learners in 2015. That’s about 25% of the current student population. Each child who is enrolled in the Chicago public school system is given a survey that their parent or guardian must fill out, explaining if English is spoken in the home and if the student speaks another language besides English.

Latino Enrollment
Public school enrollment for Hispanics/Latinos is 45.6% as of 2015. Among those, 16.7% are classified as English Language Learners. These figures reflect enrollment numbers for the years 2014-2015 with a total of 396,683 students in classes from Pre K to 12th grade. Hispanics/Latinos are the largest racial demographic enrolled in the Chicago school system with African-Americans coming in second.

Latino Demographics
The Hispanic population was counted at 1,971,000 as of 2013, making them 21.5% of the total number of residents living in Chicago, IL. Among these 1.9 million, a majority of them (1.4 million) are legal residents of the United States. These figures are according to the Pew Research Center. In total, the Hispanic/Latino population of Chicago is the fifth largest in the country.

Latino Drop Out Stats
The dropout rates in Chicago for 2015 were misinterpreted, leading to an incorrect report for graduation rates in the city’s public school system. The figure that had been reported originally was 69.4% when it reality it was closer to 66.3%. Figures prior to 2015 showed that 19-24 year old Latinos were more likely to drop out of school at a rate of 23%.

What is each state doing to provide support for English Learners and Latino demographic?
The city of Chicago has created the Office of Language and Cultural Education (OLCE), which is the leading organization that consults with Chicago schools to offer a top notch education to ELL’s through supporting cultural and linguistic diversity. Any school in the public system that has 20 or more ELL’s enrolled must offer a Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) program. The TBE program provides courses for these students that provided in dual languages as well as teaching them about the culture and history of the United States in conjunction with the history and culture of their native lands. Those schools with less than 20 are required to offer a Transitional Program of Instruction (TPI) which provide similar courses and capacities but on a smaller scale.

If your school is in need of bilingual Spanish and English parent programs, The Latino Family Literacy Project offer award-winning programs and Professional Development for Parent Involvement. The College-Awareness program will help staff to work with parents and students in a school setting and will teach parents how they can help their kids get to college.