One-Third of U.S. Preschoolers Are Dual Language Learners. Federal Dollars Meant to Help Them Often Miss the Mark

WASHINGTON, DC — One in three children under age 6 in the United States is a Dual Language Learner (DLL) —a young child growing up in a household where at least one parent speaks a language other than English at home. Research consistently shows that engagement of families, not just children, is critical to boosting the effectiveness of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in strengthening school readiness, language development and long-term academic success. A new analysis finds that Title I, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which is the largest federal investment in schools serving low-income students, offers an underutilized but significant opportunity to deliver exactly that.

Federal law already permits Title I dollars to support family engagement in preschool programs, including for families that speak a language other than English at home. However, limited direction is provided on how these resources can be leveraged to meet the needs of DLLs. As a result, opportunities to use Title I funding to strengthen engagement with DLL families often go unrealized, a new policy brief from the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy finds.

The brief, Leveraging ESSA Funding for Pre-K Family Engagement to Support Dual Language Learners, identifies persistent structural barriers driving this gap. Title I and Title III funding streams are largely administered in separate silos, creating fragmented approaches that limit their combined impact for young DLLs. Early childhood educators, who know these children's needs best, are frequently excluded from the district-level decisions that determine how Title I funds are allocated. And accountability mechanisms to track whether family engagement activities reach DLL families are largely absent.

Yet promising models exist. In Chicago, a longstanding partnership between the Logan Square Neighborhood Association and Chicago Public Schools trains immigrant parents as paid classroom mentors — building trust with multilingual families while bringing additional community resources into schools. In Colorado, Aurora Public Schools holds regular parent engagement meetings that inform families how Title I funds can be used and invite them to drive spending decisions. In Washington State, Highline Public Schools partners with African diaspora community organizations to reach immigrant families during kindergarten enrollment. These examples demonstrate that, with intentional effort and community partnership, Title I can be a powerful tool for DLL families.

The analysis calls on federal, state and local stakeholders to take five concrete steps:

• Clarify Title I's applicability to preschool programs, so state and local education agencies provide explicit guidance on using these funds to support DLLs' school readiness and language development from the earliest years.
• Invest in professional development and family engagement tools that are culturally and linguistically responsive, equipping educators to partner effectively with immigrant families.
• Ensure families with DLLs have seats on Title I parent advisory councils, with language access and outreach that makes participation genuinely accessible.
• Braid Title I with Title III and Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5) funding to create comprehensive, coordinated support systems for young DLLs, rather than fragmented, siloed services.
• Establish state-level accountability and reporting mechanisms to track whether Title I family engagement activities are reaching DLL families equitably and to drive course corrections where they are not.

“By addressing gaps, leveraging Title I resources effectively and building strong partnerships with families during DLL children’s earliest years of enrollment, state and local stakeholders can create a solid foundation for these students to succeed in preschool and thrive in K-12 and beyond,” said Margie McHugh, director of the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy.

Read the policy brief, authored by analysts Katherine Habben and Maki Park, here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/essa-family-engagement-dlls.