The Justice Department today announced a settlement agreement with the Providence, Rhode Island, Public School District to resolve an investigation into the district’s programs and services for new immigrant English learner students with limited or interrupted education, known in the district as “newcomers.” The Providence Public School District is the largest school district in Rhode Island, serving thousands of English learner students, including hundreds of newcomers.

“New immigrant students and families bring great promise and a wealth of strengths to school communities, but they too often face great adversity in accessing educational opportunities,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Schools far too frequently shut their doors to newcomers or divert them into segregated programs with few opportunities and inadequate services. Federal law is clear: all students, including immigrant students, have a right to meaningfully participate in their district’s educational programs, and the Justice Department is committed to enforcing that right in Rhode Island and across the country.”

“The Providence Public School District’s failure to meet its civil rights obligations to newcomer students is unacceptable,” said U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Cunha for the District of Rhode Island, “particularly coming as it does in the wake of an earlier, 2018 civil rights agreement that addressed the school district’s failure to accommodate English language learners.  Providence’s woeful history of half measures and consistent failures to meet the critical needs of its most vulnerable students has necessitated today’s action: a more closely targeted and stringent agreement focused on the newcomer program.”

The agreement resolves the department’s investigation into complaints about civil rights violations at the district’s “Newcomer Academy,” a program intended to provide accelerated learning to newcomers aged seventeen and older. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island found that the district had failed to provide adequate English language instruction to over 200 students at the Newcomer Academy. Indeed, dozens of students at the Newcomer Academy signed a petition during the 2023-24 school year stating that they wanted to learn English at their school. The department also found that the district failed to staff the program with qualified, trained teachers and administrators and unnecessarily segregated newcomers, depriving them of equal opportunities to receive special education and participate in programs such as career and technical education.

The district cooperated with the department during the investigation and has started to take steps to address some of the concerns identified by the department.

Under the agreement, the district will ensure that all students in newcomer programs receive adequate instruction in the English language and that teachers in newcomer programs are appropriately trained and qualified. In addition, the district will provide language translation and interpretation of important school information to parents of newcomers who are not fluent in English. The district will also ensure that newcomers have equal access to specialized programs and are appropriately integrated with other English learners and native English speakers.   

The department conducted its investigation under the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 and the department’s 2018 agreement with the district (extended in 2021), addressing all of the district’s English learner services and programs. Today’s settlement, which focuses on newcomers, will supersede the previous agreement.

Enforcement of the Equal Educational Opportunities Act is a top priority of the Civil Rights Division. Additional information about the Civil Rights Division is available at www.justice.gov/crt, and additional information about the work of the division’s Educational Opportunities Section is available at www.justice.gov/crt/combating-national-origin-discrimination-schools.

Members of the public can report possible civil rights violations at civilrights.justice.gov/report/ or by emailing usari.civilrightscomplaint@usdoj.gov. Anyone in Rhode Island may also report civil rights violations directly to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island at www.justice.gov/usao-ri/civil-rights-enforcement or 401-709-5000.

View the settlement summary here.

View the settlement summary in Spanish here.