According to the Supreme Court’s 1974 decision Lau vs. Nichols, California schools are required to create lessons that are understandable for LEP students, which in effect means that they must provide some form of bilingual education. The Department of Education guidelines for the development of all programs for LEP students are as follows:

• The main goal of all programs is to make LEP students fluent in English. Programs must be designed such that LEP students do well in all classes. In some cases, this means teaching some subjects to LEP students in their mother language. Schools were required to give all LEP students the option of being in a bilingual program.

 
• LEP students received several special services. About 40% of LEP students studied their academic subjects in English but the class material and methodology were specially designed for students who did not speak English. Approximately 30% of all the LEP students studied their academic subjects in their home language, which was usually referred to as bilingual education. The last 30% of LEP students did not receive special help in their academic subjects. There were two possible reasons why some students were not provided with special services: 1) they do not need them or 2) their school did not provide such services. These special services were to be given until the LEP student could read, write, and understand English as well as English speakers in their class level and until they could participate equally with their fluent English-speaking classmates.

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