The paper, originally given at a 1986 Ethnic and Multicultural Symposium, reports on the development and use of a screening instrument for use with language minority students. The literature on disproportionate representation of racial and language minorities in special education and the assessment of limited English proficient students is reviewed. Guidelines for screening and referral are presented and the trend toward increasing use of prereferral screening is noted. The Prereferral Screening Instrument requires gathering information about the student's previous educational experiences, including native and second language proficiency, achievement, behavior, and previous assessments. A case example is provided to illustrate the instrument's use in determining whether an individual student evaluation is warranted and the language/s to be used in conducting such an assessment. (DB)