Table 204.27.

English learner (EL) students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools, by home language, grade, and selected student characteristics: Selected school years, 2008-09 through fall 2020

Home language, grade, and selected student characteristic	Number of EL students											Percentage distribution of EL students							Number of EL students as a percent of enrollment1
	2008-092	2009-102	2012-13	2013-14	Fall 2014	Fall 2015	Fall 2016	Fall 2017	Fall 20183	Fall 2019	Fall 2020	Fall 2014	Fall 20154	Fall 2016	Fall 2017	Fall 20183	Fall 2019	Fall 2020	2008-092	2009-102	2012-13	2013-14	Fall 2014	Fall 2015	Fall 2016	Fall 2017	Fall 20183	Fall 2019	Fall 2020
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Total	4,685,746	4,647,016	4,850,293	4,929,989	4,813,693	4,854,285	4,949,423	5,010,505	5,024,177	5,115,887	4,963,388	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	9.7	9.7	10.0	10.1	9.8	9.9	10.1	10.2	10.2	10.4	10.1
15 most commonly reported      home languages of EL      students4
Spanish, Castilian	3,617,597	3,577,649	3,718,047	3,770,816	3,709,828	3,741,066	3,790,949	3,749,314	3,777,926	3,872,153	3,745,460	77.1	77.1	76.6	74.8	75.2	75.7	75.5	7.5	7.4	7.7	7.7	7.6	7.6	7.7	7.6	7.7	7.9	7.8
Arabic	65,278	71,228	97,971	109,170	109,165	114,371	129,386	136,531	135,870	131,554	128,641	2.3	2.4	2.6	2.7	2.7	2.6	2.6	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3
English5	86,390	77,872	90,703	91,669	83,230	80,333	70,014	94,910	99,521	105,296	124,917	1.7	1.7	1.4	1.9	2.0	2.1	2.5	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3
Chinese	77,240	80,124	104,799	107,825	104,279	101,347	104,147	106,516	102,834	100,085	93,339	2.2	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.0	2.0	1.9	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2
Vietnamese	91,607	93,204	92,560	89,705	85,289	81,157	78,732	77,765	76,517	75,558	73,075	1.8	1.7	1.6	1.6	1.5	1.5	1.5	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2
Portuguese	18,055	15,229	17,085	19,142	19,839	23,673	28,214	33,252	37,535	44,771	43,426	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.9	0.9	#	#	#	#	#	#	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Russian	34,085	33,349	33,678	33,821	32,493	33,057	34,843	36,809	38,227	39,721	37,159	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.7	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Haitian, Haitian Creole	37,074	39,736	38,768	37,371	31,428	30,231	31,608	32,655	32,833	31,504	30,063	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Hmong	52,990	49,697	41,368	39,860	37,412	34,813	33,059	32,174	31,335	30,786	28,719	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Urdu	20,705	21,213	22,590	22,499	22,294	22,879	24,668	25,282	25,513	25,346	25,192	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	#	#	#	#	#	#	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Korean	43,169	39,739	34,874	32,445	28,530	27,268	26,136	26,531	26,002	25,810	22,816	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	#
French	16,525	18,504	20,018	20,799	20,275	20,664	22,449	24,052	24,339	24,476	22,383	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
Swahili	3,498	4,439	6,391	7,093	7,065	8,480	11,994	16,099	18,362	21,591	21,054	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.4	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#	#
Somali	26,264	27,771	30,959	34,472	33,712	36,028	38,440	41,264	40,115	21,635	20,547	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.4	0.4	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	#	#
Tagalog	38,849	37,038	35,395	32,141	28,547	27,277	26,074	25,093	24,149	22,978	20,231	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	#	#	#
Grade
Kindergarten	629,195	615,615	667,835	667,665	629,013	606,398	600,184	587,543	555,660	555,599	435,304	13.1	12.5	12.1	11.7	11.1	10.9	8.8	17.3	16.7	17.4	17.4	16.7	16.3	16.2	15.9	15.1	15.0	12.9
Grade 1	621,541	617,599	665,327	665,612	640,017	621,106	603,824	588,515	571,915	554,566	526,616	13.3	12.8	12.2	11.7	11.4	10.8	10.6	16.8	16.6	17.4	17.1	16.6	16.5	16.3	16.0	15.7	15.2	15.0
Grade 2	583,025	576,336	609,804	630,475	614,681	614,809	599,147	574,690	557,799	549,027	520,055	12.8	12.7	12.1	11.5	11.1	10.7	10.5	15.8	15.7	16.4	16.6	15.9	16.0	15.9	15.6	15.3	15.1	14.7
Grade 3	495,814	511,545	540,396	558,925	567,131	564,811	576,051	551,257	527,408	521,480	511,607	11.8	11.6	11.6	11.0	10.5	10.2	10.3	13.4	13.8	14.5	15.0	14.9	14.6	14.9	14.6	14.2	14.1	14.4
Grade 4	406,966	420,145	428,119	439,529	436,554	461,022	457,476	504,999	494,195	475,765	479,376	9.1	9.5	9.2	10.1	9.8	9.3	9.7	11.2	11.4	11.6	11.9	11.7	12.2	11.9	13.1	13.1	12.8	13.3
Grade 5	333,975	336,194	367,088	361,651	364,178	372,817	389,304	400,053	426,310	430,399	409,338	7.6	7.7	7.9	8.0	8.5	8.4	8.2	9.2	9.2	10.0	9.8	9.8	10.0	10.2	10.3	11.0	11.3	11.2
Grade 6	288,784	277,971	288,085	293,778	287,798	305,530	318,740	329,313	346,319	372,575	370,788	6.0	6.3	6.4	6.6	6.9	7.3	7.5	8.0	7.6	7.7	8.0	7.8	8.2	8.5	8.6	8.9	9.6	9.9
Grade 7	263,483	254,830	255,395	267,416	260,507	267,094	286,261	291,873	308,242	332,877	348,806	5.4	5.5	5.8	5.8	6.1	6.5	7.0	7.2	7.0	6.8	7.1	7.0	7.2	7.6	7.7	8.0	8.5	9.0
Grade 8	237,269	233,332	227,844	239,817	242,540	245,574	258,192	265,210	278,688	299,022	315,476	5.0	5.1	5.2	5.3	5.5	5.8	6.4	6.4	6.4	6.2	6.4	6.5	6.6	6.9	7.0	7.4	7.7	8.1
Grade 9	268,927	258,728	255,008	261,564	263,081	269,704	286,168	280,408	291,056	326,386	307,513	5.5	5.6	5.8	5.6	5.8	6.4	6.2	6.5	6.3	6.4	6.6	6.5	6.7	7.2	7.0	7.3	8.1	7.7
Grade 10	218,235	211,691	202,774	202,377	197,494	214,015	232,687	255,043	251,394	269,559	288,004	4.1	4.4	4.7	5.1	5.0	5.3	5.8	5.7	5.6	5.4	5.4	5.2	5.6	6.0	6.7	6.5	7.0	7.4
Grade 11	172,084	175,544	170,847	168,437	157,395	162,269	183,982	202,429	218,952	219,090	235,415	3.3	3.3	3.7	4.0	4.4	4.3	4.7	4.9	5.0	4.8	4.8	4.4	4.5	5.0	5.5	6.0	6.0	6.4
Grade 12	142,406	148,173	159,410	161,227	143,189	138,814	146,373	167,145	185,699	199,082	204,569	3.0	2.9	3.0	3.3	3.7	3.9	4.1	4.2	4.3	4.6	4.6	4.1	3.9	4.1	4.6	5.1	5.5	5.6
Ungraded6	23,489	8,672	11,783	11,422	10,114	10,218	11,019	11,803	10,014	10,460	10,481	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	11.5	4.2	10.0	8.3	7.3	7.5	7.9	8.4	7.5	7.8	8.0
Race/ethnicity
White	---	---	---	---	283,253	294,763	313,996	327,309	331,902	332,436	314,757	5.9	6.1	6.3	6.6	6.6	6.5	6.3	---	---	---	---	1.2	1.2	1.3	1.4	1.4	1.5	1.4
Black	---	---	---	---	172,250	178,141	193,454	210,978	217,959	220,955	213,656	3.6	3.7	3.9	4.3	4.3	4.3	4.3	---	---	---	---	2.3	2.4	2.6	2.8	2.9	3.0	3.0
Hispanic	---	---	---	---	3,745,646	3,772,633	3,818,918	3,790,626	3,837,314	3,929,142	3,825,384	77.8	77.7	77.2	76.5	76.4	76.8	77.1	---	---	---	---	30.2	29.8	29.5	28.9	28.8	28.9	28.4
Asian	---	---	---	---	516,586	511,703	521,257	530,949	528,727	523,388	503,824	10.7	10.5	10.5	10.7	10.5	10.2	10.2	---	---	---	---	21.4	20.7	20.7	20.6	20.2	19.9	19.2
Pacific Islander	---	---	---	---	26,614	26,992	27,922	29,865	31,192	32,453	31,705	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	---	---	---	---	15.4	15.6	15.4	16.4	17.1	17.9	17.8
American Indian/      Alaska Native	---	---	---	---	38,081	38,792	39,397	30,423	38,120	38,221	36,403	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.6	0.8	0.7	0.7	---	---	---	---	7.6	7.9	8.0	6.3	8.1	8.2	20.5
Two or more races	---	---	---	---	29,527	31,136	34,382	37,760	38,894	39,260	37,578	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.8	---	---	---	---	1.9	1.9	1.9	2.0	2.0	1.8	8.4
Students with    disabilities7	---	---	---	---	665,427	713,383	700,927	718,355	766,633	792,039	800,592	13.8	14.7	14.2	14.3	15.3	15.5	16.1	---	---	---	---	11.4	12.0	11.6	11.6	12.1	12.1	12.0

---Not available.

#Rounds to zero.

1For the 15 most commonly reported home languages of EL students, the number of EL students as a percent of total enrollment is calculated. For students by grade or race/ethnicity, the number of EL students as a percent of the enrollment of students in that grade or of that race/ethnicity is calculated. For students with disabilities, the number of EL students with disabilities as a percent of the total number of students with disabilities is calculated.

2Includes data for California that reflect EL students enrolled on a single date, rather than a cumulative count of all EL students enrolled at any time during the school year.

3The number of EL students in fall 2018 excludes Vermont data because Vermont did not report by the date this source was extracted. There were a total of 1,687 EL students in Vermont in fall 2017.

4Ranking of the 15 most commonly reported home languages is based on fall 2020 data. In each year shown, home language data were unavailable for approximately 68,000 to 133,000 students identified as English learners. Enrollments of children speaking less common languages are not separately listed.

5Examples of situations in which English might be reported as an English learner's home language include students who live in multilingual households and students adopted from other countries who speak English at home but also have been raised speaking another language.

6Also includes students reported as being enrolled in grade 13.

7Includes only students with disabilities who were served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Percentage based on all EL students.

NOTE: Data in this table represent the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Includes all students identified as English learners--both those participating in EL programs and those not participating in EL programs. Except where otherwise noted, data for 2013-14 and earlier years include all EL students enrolled at any time during the school year. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity. Detail may not sum to totals because grade levels and race/ethnicity were not reported for some students and because of rounding. 2010-11 not shown due to missing data. Some data have been revised from previously published figures.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, EDFacts file 141, Data Group 678, extracted October 10, 2022, from the EDFacts Data Warehouse (internal U.S. Department of Education source); and Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary and Secondary Education," 2008-09 through 2020-21. Office of Special Education Programs, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) database, retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://www2.ed.gov/programs/osepidea/618-data/state-level-data-files/index.html#bcc. (This table was prepared October 2022.)