How many ELLs are in Ohio?
Ohio has experienced a dramatic increase in new immigration in the past 15 years. During the 2006-2007 academic year, more than 35,000 ELLs were enrolled in the state’s elementary and secondary public schools. According to the Ohio Department of Education’s (ODE) Lau Resource Center (2010), this number represents an increase of 68 percent over the number reported five years previously and an increase of 182 percent over the number reported 10 years ago. Ohio’s LEPs speak over 110 different home languages, and the top languages include Spanish, Somali, Arabic, Amish German, Japanese, Vietnamese, Russian, Korean, and Serbo-Croatian. ELLs come from new or established immigrant families (predominantly from Spanish-speaking countries), secondary migrants to Ohio from other states, migrant agricultural families, and refugees, since Ohio is a designated refugee resettlement state.
