U.S. Home Language Survey Data

Summary:  View help for Summary Home language surveys (HLS) are widely used by states as an initial screening tool to determine whether students should receive English as a Second Language (ESL) services. Parents/guardians are asked to complete the surveys when enrolling a student into a school. We collected surveys from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. We completed them as if we were the parent/guardian of six fictitious case students. Research questions were: 1. How do HLS vary from state to state, if at all? What kinds of questions do they ask? 2. How do HLS across the 50 states and the District of Columbia identify, or not, six fictitious students for further ESL screening? We found that states and USDOE-approved HLS questions identified students differently due to unclear questions, such as asking bilingual families to name one dominant language.