A new audit has revealed thousands of New York City public school students who are English language learners have not received the access to courses or instruction they are entitled to, as required by state law.

The audit , released by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, was released Monday, just days after the 2025-2026 school year began.

It found system-wide non-compliance and failures in services provided to English language learners by the city Department of Education. According to the audit, this disproportionately impacts Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali, and Arabic-speaking communities, with Spanish-speaking students representing 67% of all English language learners.

“In the world’s greatest city of immigrants, English language learner programs are the cornerstone of the c

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