Over the last several decades, Florida has been a destination for immigrants from ¬¬around the world, many for whom English is not their first language. In 1990, diverse groups of community leaders and activists came together to file a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) to address the need of programs for English language learner (ELL) students. As a result of the lawsuit, Florida's Multicultural Education Training and Advocacy (META) Consent Decree provided a framework for compliance with federal and state laws and jurisprudence, mandating all districts to ensure ELL students are provided with equal access to programming appropriate to their level of English proficiency, academic achievement, and special needs. In this dissertation, I used a content analysis to systematically investigate the contents of District ELL Plans from all 67 school districts in Florida related to their reports regarding their engagement in communication and outreach to ELL parents, the functions and composition of PLCs and to understand, using Epstein's Parent Involvement Framework, the nature of services to parents. The study focused on the following two sections of the META Consent Decree: Section 8 (Parent, Guardian, Student Notification and Rights), and Section 9 (The Parent Leadership Council). In my analysis of Section 8, I found that districts relied mostly on translated school-to-home communication documents and bilingual professionals to communicate with ELL parents. Also, the data showed that districts collaborated with various community stakeholders to expand ELL parent and student services. As for Section 9, I found that 37% of 67 PLCs (n=25) across the state only used PLCs to develop, revise and approve the District ELL Plan while 36% of districts used PLCs to provide ELL parents with an opportunity to have a voice and share their concerns and needs. In general, 69% of districts implemented their PLCs only at the local education agency level, rather than at the school level. Lastly, 100% of the districts reported at least one sample practice for Epstein et al.'s (2018) Parent Involvement Framework's through parenting, communicating, volunteering, and decision-making. In contrast, 49% of districts did not report a practice for the involvement of families through learning at home and 34% of districts did not report a practice deriving from the involvement collaborating with the community.
