This federal policy statement outlines policy on provision of education to limited-English-speaking school children. First, it describes briefly the demographics of this population and the academic difficulties faced by them, and the recent federal initiative for broadened educational opportunity, America 2000: An Education Strategy. Then, relevant requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are summarized, and the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) policy on language minority students is chronicled, beginning with a 1970 memorandum and concluding with 1985 and 1991 statements. The final section discusses two general issues of compliance with Title VI provisions: (1) whether there is a need for the district to provide a special language service program to meet the educational needs of all language minority students (an alternative program); and (2) whether the district's alternative program is likely to be effective in meeting the educational needs of its language minority students. Procedures for school districts to use to ensure that their programs are serving this population effectively, and areas that OCR examines to evaluate program effectiveness are outlined. (MSE)