ATA Newsbriefs

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island (LCRI), and the National Education Association (NEA) have filed a lawsuit on behalf of their members challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) termination of millions of dollars in professional development grants for improving educational instruction for English learners.

In September 2025, the ED discontinued funding for 28 National Professional Development (NPD) grants. These multi-year grants supported evidence-based programs administered by colleges, universities, and public and private entities. Working in coordination with state and local educational agencies across the country, the programs trained both in-service and pre-service educators serving English learner students.

“The Department of Education’s unprecedented decision to abruptly terminate these active grants mid-stream is a direct attack on vital educator pipelines across the country,” said Michael Tafelski, SPLC’s interim co-chief legal officer. “This politically driven overreach fundamentally harms public classrooms and deprives English learner students of the qualified teachers they need to succeed.”

The lawsuit argues that the ED ignored its own performance-based regulations and previously established legal criteria for evaluating multi-year grants. Instead, it justified terminating the funding by selectively citing isolated references to diversity, equity, and inclusion language in grant applications that had previously been reviewed, accepted, and approved. In several cases, grant applicants included this language to comply with federal law mandating that grant recipients must explicitly outline steps to ensure equitable access to the funded activities.

The lawsuit requests the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island to declare the ED’s actions unlawful, vacate the 28 grant discontinuation notices, and order new grant-continuation decisions based on actual program performance rather than ideological screening.

“These grants exist for one reason: to make sure every student, regardless of the language spoken at home, has a real opportunity for academic success,” said NEA President Becky Pringle. When the federal government walks away from that commitment, real consequences follow. Students lose access to trained educators. Classrooms lose the support they need. And the promise of equitable, high-quality instruction becomes a mirage for the children who need it most.”

Southern Poverty Law Center (6/3/26)

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The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Unicode are collaborating to highlight their shared commitment to ensuring that digitally disadvantaged communities, and especially Indigenous Peoples, can access digital environments and technologies to create, communicate, learn, and participate online in their own languages.

The collaboration reflects the multi-stakeholder spirit of the Global Action Plan of IDIL2022-2032, which recognizes the growing importance of private organizations and civil society in advancing language preservation and revitalization efforts worldwide.

The Unicode Consortium, founded in 1988 as a public-benefit, non-profit organization, develops open standards for software internationalization and digital services. Its work plays a key role in advancing digital inclusion, particularly by ensuring that the writing systems of the world’s languages are accurately represented across digital devices and platforms. Since its inception, Unicode has been integrated into all major operating systems and is now used on more than 20 billion devices worldwide. This enables billions of users to participate seamlessly in the digital environment, regardless of language, geography, or device.

“We at Unicode recognize that the ability for Indigenous communities to communicate, participate, and thrive online in their own languages is foundational to language preservation, revitalization, and community strength,” said Toral Cowieson, chief executive officer of Unicode.

Cowieson said the collaboration will deliver mutual benefits by raising global awareness of Unicode Consortium’s work for low-resourced languages through UNESCO’s extensive partner networks while creating new opportunities for collaboration. In turn, Unicode will support UNESCO’s inclusive digital initiatives with strategic expertise and policy guidance, advancing a more multilingual and equitable internet.

“We highly value the important work carried out by Unicode to ensure that all languages, including Indigenous languages, are represented and accessible in the digital world,” said Mariya Gabriel, assistant director-general for communication and information at UNESCO.

UNESCO (6/16/26)

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Wegmans Food Markets has announced a new accessibility initiative that will provide free, on-demand American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting services at all store locations through the Aira ASL app.

The service allows customers and employees to connect instantly with professional ASL interpreters using their mobile devices. By downloading the Aira ASL app, users can initiate a video call that enables real-time communication between Deaf and hearing individuals.

Using a device’s camera and microphone, interpreters facilitate conversations on demand during store hours, eliminating the need to schedule an interpreter in advance.

The Aira ASL app is available for free download through the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and as a desktop application.

Wegmans officials said the addition of Aira ASL reflects the company’s ongoing commitment to creating a more accessible and inclusive shopping experience for customers and employees alike.

Erie News Now (6/2/26) By Lillian Baldi

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In Maryland, Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) announced a reversal of their decision to cut language immersion at the middle and high school levels and in boundary programs (K-8 lottery immersion schools).

“We are pleased to share that Prince George’s County Public Schools will fully sustain Language Immersion programming for the 2026–2027 school year,” read the announcement. Parents of immersion students had rallied and campaigned to save the programs, and Superintendent Shawn Joseph referenced their advocacy at a recent meeting of the board workgroup.

The cuts that were part of the superintendent’s budget would have closed the Chinese immersion program at Paint Branch Elementary, the Spanish immersion program at Capitol Heights Elementary, and the Chinese immersion program at Greenbelt Middle School, as well as all high school immersion programs (Chinese, Spanish, and French), all of which are housed at Largo High School.

Though parents celebrated the decision, some said it had come too late for the fall enrollment.

“I’m happy and grateful for the overall win and the future of the program, but also sad and angry about the inconsiderate manner with which PGCPS handled the issue,” said Erica Watson Staples, the parent of an eight-grader enrolled in an immersion program. “Our family recognized the value of this program and made the decision to enter our student in kindergarten with the intention of following all the way through to high school graduation. After nine years of sacrifice and commitment, for PGCPS to just completely take it away only to suddenly reinstate it so late in the year is wrong and almost feels like a purposeful sabotage,” she said.

The Strategic Realignment Workgroup led by the Board of Education is conducting a review of the budget to guide long-term financial decisions, said PGCPS, but their work “will not be completed in time to inform immediate programmatic decisions for the upcoming school year.”

Greenbelt News Review (6/10/26) By Anna Bedford-Dillow

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