'Language justice': Denver school district aims to allow non-English-speaking students to learn in their native languages

Denver Public Schools recently adopted a new policy that aims to allow non-English-speaking students to receive an education in their native or preferred languages, the Center Square reported Saturday.

The news outlet stated that DPS is on track to become the first school district in the nation to establish a "long term goal" of obtaining "language justice."

A district draft document obtained by the Center Square explained that "language justice" is "the notion of respecting every individual's fundamental language rights — to be able to communicate, understand, and be understood in the language in which they prefer and feel most articulate and powerful."

"DPS will be a district that is free of oppressive systems and structures rooted in racism and one which centers students and team members with a focus on racial and educational equity, enabling students to ultimately become conscientious global citizens and collaborative leaders," the draft policy statement also read.

It noted that the district has a responsibility to "achieve equity" by "remov[ing] deeply rooted systems of oppression that have historically resulted in inequitable access and distribution of opportunities and resources for those who represent marginalized identities, including but not limited to race, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, language and ability."

DPS enrolled roughly 90,250 students in 2022, 35,000 of whom were multilingual and spoke a language other than English at home.

Colorado's Stand for Children, an advocacy group dedicated to advancing "educational equity and racial justice," worked with DPS to add the policy to the district's six-part Ends statement.

The group noted that its next goal is to ensure language justice verbiage is passed in an executive limitation.

"The next step is to add a Language Justice policy in EL 9, 'Treatment of Students, Parents, Families and Community,'" the group's website states. "We will continue to work with school leaders and staff to help provide knowledge of these policies and strategies to accomplish language justice in every classroom and school."

Rosa Guzman-Snyder, a co-founder of Community Language Cooperative, an organization providing translation services that has invested in language justice, told the Center Square, "It's not just a matter of hiring more interpreters and translators but rather creating systems and building the infrastructure that best supports linguistically diverse families and supporting multilingual staff."

DPS did not respond to a request for comment from the Center Square.

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