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In 1839, at the request of parents of students, Ohio became the first state to enact a bilingual education law. This enabled German-English instruction in schools.
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During this time, nearly 4% of United States elementary schools were learning German along with English. The Territory of New Mexico authorized Spanish as a bilinguial learning language in their elementary schools.
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In 1879, American Indians were forced to attend schools that were not located on their reservation by the federal government. They were punished if they used their native languages or partaking in their cultural ways.
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During the WWI era, many schools enacted an English only instruction law in order to 'Americanize' students. People became leery of non-English speaking people in general, particularly German speakers. In 1923 this restriction was struck down as unconstintutional with the Meyer vs Nebraska case.
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In 1979 a group of Chinese American students living in San Francisco brought about a civil rights case stating that the 'sink or swim' policies for foreign language students violated their civil rights. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the students.
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The Lau Remedies mandated that schools must offer special language accommodations for children with a limited grasp on the English language. The Lau Remedies were put in place to be comliant with Lau v. Nichols.
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In 1977, federal court case Ríos v. Read ruled that bilingual educational programs needed to include cultural components. Native language was seen to be very intertwined with native cultures.
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The Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National, Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities of the General Assembly of the United Nations was signed and put forth. This reaffirms that the United States grants freedoms to all people without prejudice.
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In 1994, California passes Proposition 187 which makes it illegal to for illegal immigrants to atend public school. It is later overturned as it violates Plyer v. Doe.
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In 2001, Title III in the No Child Left Behind act was passed. It offers Federal Funding to schools to help with the education of English language leaners.
