In question and answer form, this document presents information about limited English proficient (LEP) students and programs for them in the New York City (New York) schools. City and state regulations govern the identification of LEP students and their selection for English as a second language (ESL) or bilingual programs. The Board of Education has developed a Language Assessment Battery to identify these students, who are required to receive ESL instruction, native language arts instruction, and social studies, mathematics, and science using their native language and English using ESL methodologies. There were 162,154 general education LEP students in the New York city public schools in 1996-97. Spanish is the predominant language of New York's LEP students, for 67.5%, followed by Chinese for 9.3%. Of these students, 154,992 were already receiving mandated ESL or bilingual instruction in 967 schools. In the city, 6,893 teachers were providing bilingual or ESL instruction, a figure that does not include counselors, program supervisors, resource teachers, or coordinators. A map of the community school districts in New York City shows the districts with 3,000 or more LEP students. (Contains nine tables.) (SLD)