The elimination of English Language Learner (ELL) program support in California is expected to affect 1,009,066 students statewide, including 5,928 Korean American students in public schools.
According to the latest statistics from the California Department of Education, 5,928 Korean American students were classified as ELL during the 2024–2025 fiscal year. Among Asian groups, Korean Americans ranked fourth after Chinese (33,476), Vietnamese (18,066), and Filipino (6,743) students. Hispanic students made up the majority, with 807,712 ELL classifications.
ELL enrollment is heavily concentrated in areas with large Korean American populations. Los Angeles County reported 1,599 Korean American ELL students, while Orange County reported 1,898. Together, the two counties account for 3,497 students, or about 59 percent of all Korean American ELL students in California. This concentration means that the end of ELL program support will disproportionately affect these communities.
Under current policy, students are classified as ELL if a language other than English is spoken at home, even if the student was born in the United States. Each year, they take the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC) to measure their progress.
Debbie Kim (37), a parent in Orange County, said: “The school district analyzed the ELPAC results and sent us a report card every year. That helped us understand where my child needed more support. Ending ELL support is essentially abandoning students from immigrant families.”
Even students in higher grades remain classified as ELL. In the 2024–2025 fiscal year, 1,608 Korean American students in grade six or higher were still in the program, representing 27 percent of all Korean American ELL students.
Jennifer Kim, a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, explained that the ELPAC evaluates not just language skills but also speaking, writing, and critical thinking in English. “If support for the ELL system is eliminated,” she warned, “the language gap between minority students and English-speaking students will only widen.”
Across California, a total of 1,009,066 students were classified as ELL in the 2024–2025 fiscal year. This included 99,291 kindergarteners and 53,810 high school seniors, showing how deeply the system affects students across all grade levels.
BY HANKIL KANG [kang.hankil@koreadaily.com]
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