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2008 Grant Information
Federal Monitoring 2005
Our nation is becoming increasingly culturally and ethnically diverse. Most
school districts are experiencing the need to provide educational services for
immigrant, migrant, Native American or other children whose home language is not
English.
School systems and educators have a legal responsibility to
provide for the needs of limited English proficient (LEP)
children. They also have the educational responsibility of
ensuring that every child can achieve the level of knowledge and
skills they need to be productive citizens who participate in
all areas of our society.
South Dakota has 6223 limited English proficient (LEP)
students representing 60 languages based on March 2005 data
collected. This total represents the students in public schools
and does not represent the students in Bureau of Indian Affairs
schools. The number of LEP students in South Dakota has
increased from 5,495 in 1999-00 to 6223 in 2004-05. Lakota is
the most prevalent language with 3,391 students; Spanish - 623,
Hutterish - 401, German - 289, Dakota - 249, Swahili - 106,
Arabic – 70, Croatian – 67, Somali – 61, and Russian - 55. South
Dakota school districts and communities are faced with an
increasingly diverse student population requiring a variety of
educational services, not unlike what the rest of the nation is
also experiencing. |
