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The Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director of the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) serves as principal advisor to the Secretary on Departmental matters related to the education of linguistically and culturally diverse students. OELA is charged with administering certain programs authorized under Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, as amended.  In addition, OELA administers the Foreign Language Assistance Program authorized by Title V of ESEA.

The Office establishes and implements policy and national dissemination efforts of the bilingual education programs that serve the limited English proficient (LEP) children and adults. The Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director coordinates with other programs in the Department serving LEP students and provides national leadership and support for the programs and activities for which the administrative authority has been delegated by the Secretary. The Office directs, coordinates and recommends policy for programs that are designed to:

• Support systemic reform efforts carried out by SEAs and LEAs.
• Build and maintain capacity of SEAs to access Department of Education resources in order to effectively serve limited English proficient (LEP) students.
• Build and/or enhance local education agency (LEA) capacity to provide an education of high quality to LEP and language minority students.
• Build and enhance LEA and SEA capacity to provide quality foreign language programs for elementary and secondary students.
• Support and assist institutions of higher education (IHEs) to develop creative professional development programs for teachers, principals and other school-based educators.
• Provide programmatic leadership to enhance and share the knowledge base of issues related to limited English proficient students with other offices in the Department and the education community in general.
• Provide technical assistance and support to the Student Achievement and School Accountability Group in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.