Court Case

Castaneda vs. Pickard

Jun 23, 1981

The case originated in Texas, where plaintiffs charged that the Raymondville Independent School District was failing to address the needs of ELL students as mandated by the EEOA. A major outcome of this case is a three-pronged test to determine whether schools are taking "appropriate action" to address the needs of ELLs as required by the EEOA.

How this is Impacting Educators and ELL's

Jun 23, 1981

This impacts us as educators and ELL’s because people fought to bring attention to certain issues.  If they did not, in any of these cases, than there wouldn’t be change to how we treat our children in the school district.  Especially those who are ELL’s.

Main Events

Jun 23, 1981

1. Plaintiffs felt that the grouping was not appropriate
2. Unlawful employment discrimination
3. Court felt that the district was within where they needed to be
4. Plaintiffs raised the information about past discrimination
5. Court felt that was not prudent to the case
6. Lau Guidelines were not up to par
7. Courts felt that this was correct, that the Lau Guidelines were not be followed
8. RISD’s bilingual program is not being violative of Title VI

Quote

Jun 23, 1981

Much of the plaintiffs' argument with regard to Title VI is based upon the premise that the Lau Guidelines are administrative regulations applicable to the RISD and thus should be given great weight by us in assessing the legal sufficiency of the district's programs. This premise is, however, flawed. The Department of HEW, in assessing the district's compliance with Title VI, acknowledged that the Lau Guidelines were inapplicable to an evaluation of the legal sufficiency...

Significant for this Period

Jun 23, 1981

Because there are so many Mexican-Americans that were not being treated fairly in a town that was predominantly Mexican-American. This was during a time when not all races were treated fairly.