The discount comes after DOJ slammed the district in May for not properly teaching English to more than 200 students, including because they did not have an independent period of English language development at school. Under a previous 2018 settlement with the DOJ regarding Providence’s failure to adequately teach multilingual learners, the district was required to provide incoming students with two English language development periods per day.

The DOJ found that Providence violated the Equal Educational Opportunity Act.

globe previously reported that Newcomer students signed a petition calling for more English classes, and teachers told the Globe they were concerned about students’ compressed timelines in which he was expected to learn a wide range of material, with some referring to the school as a “diploma mill”.

The new agreement includes requirements that students receive the two English language development periods per day taught by certified ESL teachers, not teachers with “emergency” certifications. The district must staff Newcomer Academy with “enough” certified ESL teachers by Jan. 1 — even if that means reassigning them from other schools — to achieve a student-teacher ratio comparable to ESL programs in other programs Providence level. schools.

The agreement also requires the district to provide compensatory services for students who attended Newcomer in the 2023-24 school year and did not receive an independent English language development class. The district must also provide teacher training specific to newcomer education and must provide students with access to the same career and technical and special education programs offered to other students in Providence.

The Newcomer Academy, which opened in September 2023 as a stand-alone school in the Providence Career and Technical Academy building using COVID relief funds, sought to create a flexible high school for newcomers to the country, who are over 17 years, have dropped out of school, and have little or no knowledge of English.

The new school — which is separate from the more traditional newcomer program elsewhere in the district — implemented a unique, staggered schedule where students could attend school later in the day and for fewer hours than their peers. The arrangement recognized that students had jobs and family obligations and were at high risk of dropping out without flexible hours. Wednesday was optional.

The DOJ said the arrangement was unacceptable. The students did not receive the two periods per day required for English language development. And because the schedule didn’t align with bell hours at Providence Career & Technical Academy, students were separated from their English-speaking peers for lunch, electives, and career and technical courses offered at PCTA, but not at Newcomer.

After visiting the school, federal officials expressed concern that students were “over-enrolled,” with some taking as many as 12 grades at a time.

“We have serious questions about the academic rigor of the curriculum offered at Newcomer Academy, given the large number of classes in which students were simultaneously enrolled,” officials said. he wrote in a letter in July.

The school district denied any wrongdoing in the spring, but almost immediately made changes, including adding an optional English language development class to the school day and removing the principal, Oscar Paz.

When the new school year began in September 2024, the district reviewed the programreturning to a traditional school day and integrating the newcomer students with their peers at Providence Career & Technical Academy for non-academic topics such as career and technical education and lunch. Wednesday is no longer optional.

The new agreement replaces the 2018 Multilingual Learner Agreement, which addressed the failure to adequately serve English language learners across the district.

“The failure of the Providence Public School District to meet its civil rights obligations to incoming students is unacceptable,” Cunha said in a statement. “In particular, following a previous 2018 civil rights settlement that addressed the school district’s failure to accommodate English language learners.”

The district must be in full compliance with the agreement by 2027.

“Federal law is clear: All students, including immigrant students, have the right to participate meaningfully in their district’s educational programs, and the Department of Justice is committed to enforcing that right in Rhode Island and across the country,” he said. said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney. general for the DOJ’s civil rights division.