Of the 5 million ELL students in the 2019–2020 school year, 15.3% of these or 766,600 were identified with disabilities and qualified for special education services. ELLs with disabilities follow the same path to receiving services for special education:  academic struggle is observed by those working with the student, the student is referred to a team of professionals for intervention and/or assessment, if a disability is found they are then placed in special education programming for support.
