Based upon the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, Judge Joiner ruled in favor of black families with children at Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, who claimed that the school board did not take action to overcome a language barrier arising from the children’s black English dialect that prevented the children from making progress in reading. [Source] The implications for language policy are clear: this decision interpreted the law in favor of providing language supports to children with dialects or non-standard English.
