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History
The Bilingual Assessment Team (BAT) was created in
1979 by the Division of ESOL/Bilingual Programs and
the Department of Special Education to help explore
intervention and diagnostic issues arising from school
concerns about limited-English-proficient students who
have, or are suspected of having, an educational disability.
BAT was initially comprised of three educational diagnosticians
and one psychologist, and later a speech/language pathologist
joined the team.
As the ESOL population in Montgomery County increased
steadily each year, so did the number of students referred
to BAT for language dominance, educational, psychological,
and speech/language assessments. To meet those needs,
in the early 1990s, the team hired two additional educational
assessors, two full-time psychologists, and a half-time
speech/language pathologist. Support services and technology
also increased.
An expansion of BAT took place during the 2002-03 fiscal
year, when staff increased to six full-time instructional
assessment specialists, six full-time school psychologists,
two full-time speech/language pathologists, and two
full-time support staff members. The Speech and Language
Programs office continues to provide support to the
BAT, as needed. Speech/language assessments in languages
other than French and Spanish are completed by local
school speech/language pathologists, with the assistance
of an interpreter.
Bilingual Assessment Team instructional assessment
specialists and psychologists work with school-age English-language
learners who are currently enrolled in the ESOL instructional
program from kindergarten through 12th grade. The team
also works with preschoolers who come from non-English-language
backgrounds and are currently enrolled in an MCPS regular
or special education preschool program, private preschool
program, and/or are referred through the MCPS Child
Find Clinic.
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