‘They just disappear’: Southern Delaware school district faces civil rights complaint over English learner support

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For students who arrive in the United States without English proficiency, the classroom can feel like a maze — unfamiliar, overwhelming and isolating. For some students in southern Delaware, getting help with learning the language has been more difficult than it’s supposed to be.

New students, often immigrants or refugees, are expected to adapt quickly despite coming from diverse cultural backgrounds where English is not their first language. They can find themselves struggling to understand not just their coursework, but also social cues and expectations that may come more naturally to their classmates.

Research shows that placing English language learners directly into bigger classrooms without adequate support can have long-term consequences. Without specialized instruction, these students struggle to keep pace with their English-speaking peers, often falling behind in reading, writing and comprehension. A 2017 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine says English language learners require structured English development classes to bridge the learning gap, but that many school districts fail to provide such resources.

In the Cape Henlopen School District, the issue has reached a breaking point. Louise Michaud Ngido, an English language teacher at Mariner Middle School, filed a civil rights complaint against the district, alleging it fails to provide the required educational support for English learners.

“We don’t provide English language classes, English development classes for recent arrivals to the United States — students who come with very little formal English training — a class that would walk them through reading, writing, speaking and listening in English,” Michaud Ngido said. “We also don’t have a curriculum, and we don’t have a designated space in the building to have those classes.”

“​​That is supposed to be a requirement through the federal Office of Civil Rights through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Lau v. Nichols,” she added.

The lack of structured English learner programs contradicts federal law. In the Lau v. Nichols case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that schools receiving federal funds must provide language support for ELL students, as failing to do so violates their civil rights. This decision reinforced Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, requiring districts like Cape Henlopen to ensure ELL students have equal access to education.

A lack of instruction and communication

The challenge for English learners is twofold. Not only are they expected to keep up with classmates in subjects like math, science and history, but they must do so while simultaneously trying to learn the language of instruction. Michaud Ngido argues the district has ignored this reality.

Beyond the lack of structured English instruction, she raised concerns about how the district communicates with families of ELL students.

“We don’t provide translation and interpretation for parents on a professional level,” she said. “They’re supposed to have a certified interpreter, a certified translator. You’re not supposed to use children. You’re not supposed to use random staff members unless it’s an emergency situation.”

Instead, she explained, the district sometimes relies on Google Translate for written communications — without verification from a certified interpreter — and inconsistently uses a phone-based interpreter service.

Federal officials to investigate discrimination allegations

On July 28, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights formally accepted the complaint against Cape Henlopen School District, citing allegations of discrimination against ELL students and their families on the basis of national origin.

According to the OCR letter, the agency will investigate whether the district:

• Failed to provide ELL students with an adequate language assistance program
• Lacked proper staffing and support for English learner programs
• Did not monitor or evaluate student progress in the ELL program
• Failed to ensure that parents with limited English proficiency received school communications in a language they could understand

The letter further stated that the investigation is not officially open and emphasized that the district is prohibited from retaliating against individuals who filed or participated in the complaint.

‘This is not how it’s supposed to be run’

Michaud Ngido, who has taught in the district for nearly three years and previously worked as an ESL (English as a second language) teacher in Tennessee for seven years, was surprised to find that Mariner Middle School lacked designated English learner classes.

“I assumed with time we could develop the classes and they would let me kind of pull out and teach my own classes,” she said. “But they started to pull back on that, and so we weren’t even allowed to create makeshift classes anymore for the newcomers.”

As a result, students with little to no English proficiency are placed directly into general education classes with no specialized instruction.

“​​They were just 100% all day in regular classes,” she explained. “I knew the law, that this is not how it’s supposed to be run. I didn’t feel like we were being heard and were being taken seriously.”

When she voiced her concerns to administrators, she said they dismissed them, claiming Delaware had no specific requirements for ELL instruction and that parents could not sue.

“Which is not correct. That’s not how it works,” she said. “So I just realized I have to go to the next level.”

For students caught in this system, the consequences are clear: Many fall through the cracks.

“Because they’re in regular classes, they’re hiding, they just sort of disappear,” Michaud Ngido said. “They don’t understand what’s being spoken. They sometimes can do Google Translate and translate the worksheet, but they have kind of missed the lecture or they’ve missed the presentation, or if there’s a video clip, they can’t understand that.”

She noted that grades do not always reflect a student’s true comprehension, as teachers often try to be lenient.

“If they really gave an honest, truthful grade, they’d probably all be failing every single class because they can’t read the material. They can’t write in English. They can’t understand the lectures,” she explained. “Teachers are very charitable and if you’re making an effort, then they’re going to give you a good grade and they realize your struggle. So grades are kind of a hard marker to use.”

Federal freeze leaves investigation in limbo

Although the OCR has accepted the case for investigation, Michaud Ngido said the process has stalled due to a federal freeze on civil rights cases.

“My understanding is that everything in the Office of Civil Rights pretty much froze around Dec. 10,” she said. “I think it was a directive of the new administration, this idea that the new administration wants to get rid of the Office of Civil Rights, wants to get rid of the Department of Ed. completely at a federal level and bring it down to a state level. So, everything was frozen.”

As the freeze continues and only select cases are worked on, WHYY News contacted the Cape Henlopen School District, and while it provided a written response denying allegations of discrimination, it declined to further comment or grant an interview regarding the issue.

“The District denies all allegations of discrimination against MLL students based upon national origin,” said Robert Fulton, superintendent of the Cape Henlopen School District, through an email. “The District responded to the complaint on December 19, 2024. The District has not received any response from the Office of Civil Rights since the submission.”

Michaud Ngido hopes the district will act not because of legal requirements, but “because it’s the right thing to do,” she said. “A lot of changes can be made that have nothing to do with funding. We could maintain our current funding and make changes.”

Despite potential risks to her job, she stands by her decision to file the complaint.

For now, she remains focused on advocating for her students, even as the future of the federal investigation — and the broader rights of English learners — remains uncertain.