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With the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Castañeda v. Pickard, for the first time, educators and advocates saw the potential to ensure educational equity for EL students. In spirit, Castañeda offered federal oversight in the provision of educational services for EL-identified students. Castañeda’s three prongs attended to the importance of EL educational inputs i.e., program quality and implementation and outputs, i.e., EL student achievement. In the present study, we highlight the importance of understanding the perspectives of those most closely charged with interpreting Castañeda for implementation, the state and local educational agency (SEA and LEA, respectively) leaders who oversee EL educational programs and services. We used a qualitative multiple case study design and collected interview data from 17 SEA and LEA EL leaders in three states. Discussions focused on how EL leaders draw upon Castañeda to inform their efforts to serve EL students, what these leaders see as its affordances and constraints, and how future leaders might better leverage Castañeda to improve educational equity for EL students. Insights suggest that these leaders—and their states—have adopted the principles of Castañeda into their EL guidance policies and documents, that they leverage Castañeda’s legal grounding to motivate and guide school site educators to engage in equitable practices for EL students, and that they employ its three-pronged approach to create a roadmap for EL guidance. We close with recommendations and guiding questions for EL leaders in other contexts.
