OTAN News

AB 2098 Immigrant Integration Framework Passes!

Last week, Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 2098 (McCarty and Thurmond) into law! AB 2098 adds “immigrant integration” to the list of existing outcomes, mainly centered around college and career transitions, that may be reported by the 71 California adult education consortia. According to the Alliance for Language Learners’ Integration, Education and Success (ALLIES), the driving force behind this policy initiative, “The addition of immigrant integration outcomes validates the historic role of adult education in welcoming newcomers and will strengthen this critical work for the future.”

ALLIES, based in the San Francisco South Bay Area, first began the development of the Immigrant Integration Framework by convening a diverse group of stakeholders in 2016. A white paper was published in the spring of 2017, and work began at the state level to move forward legislation that could codify the framework. After the bill made its way through the state Assembly and Senate during most of 2018 to date, AB 2098 was finally signed into law.

In its effort to support passage of the legislation, the ALLIES Board of Directors wrote:

Adding immigrant integration to AEBG outcomes, as outlined in AB 2098, is fully aligned with ALLIES’ mission to promote adult English learner success in education, career and community; and will restore a balanced approach to serving immigrants and refugees in California’s Adult Education Program. Adult Education’s historic mission to serve all students, including consistently large numbers of English language learners, will be validated and strengthened by formally recognizing immigrant integration as an outcome for adult learners, and will provide incentive for education providers to maintain and improve services to our state’s sizable immigrant and refugee community.

At a time when inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric urges us to stand up for our immigrant neighbors, AB 2098 will boost the capacity of California’s robust adult education system to develop long-term strategies that promote immigrant integration, thus contributing to the continued social and economic prosperity of our State.

To learn more about ALLIES and the Immigrant Integration Framework, visit the ALLIES website at https://www.allies4innovation.org/