The city Department of Education is not providing legally-mandated language services to thousands of public school students, according to a new audit.

The audit released by Comptroller Brad Lander found failures with the DOE's English Language Learners (ELLs) program, which provides students who do not speak English at home and needs support learning English, equal access to all school programs and services.

The audit found that the DOE has not been providing these legally-mandated services, disproportionately impacting Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali and Arabic-speaking communities. Spanish-speaking students represent about 67% of all ELLs, according to the comptroller's office.

“In the world’s greatest city of immigrants, English Language Learners programs are the cornerstone of

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