LEWISTON – Give immigrant kids a few years in an English Language Learners program and they will usually catch up with their classmates.

“In elementary school, everybody in the program is spending half the day in the classroom,” said Sue Martin, who oversees the program formerly known as English as a Second Language.

By the time those students reach high school, the majority are spending their entire days at desks beside kids who grew up speaking English.

On Friday, 21 foreign-born students earned their high school diplomas

“We’re all very concerned about high school graduation,” Martin said. “(But) it’s working.”

It’s a message Martin wants to make sure parents understand, particularly in the wake of a public meeting Wednesday that ended with angry Somali parents yelling at school officials.

Parents argued that non-translated paperwork was being sent home for signatures. Others said that some kids were being remanded to low-level language classes despite years of work. There were also charges that kids were being tossed from the high school without diplomas despite doing everything they were told.

“There are serious misperceptions out there,” Martin said. Wednesday’s meeting became so heated that Lewiston High School’s assistant principal, Paul Amnott, threatened to walk out.

The School Department has been working to keep up with rising demands from the immigrant community for seven years, Martin said.

Almost 900 kids are enrolled in the language program. Most are Somali. However, there is a growing Sudanese population, as well as Chinese and Hispanic children.

The greatest number of students – more than 500 in all – are in the elementary schools. The middle school has 126 ELL students. The high school has 178.

Communication between the schools and parents is a “huge” issue, Superintendent Leon Levesque said.

Each school that has a sizable population of foreign speakers has a full-time translator at the school. Part of each translator’s job is calling parents about concerns, but there are limits.

“We don’t have the time to call every single parent,” Levesque said.

Part of the solution may come from reaching out better to neighborhoods that have big populations or formalizing a relationship between the school and leaders within the immigrant communities, Martin said.

Meanwhile, the School Department is increasing efforts to invite parents into the schools.

This spring, parent-teacher conferences were planned for every ELL student in the middle and high schools.

One key subject: graduation.

From their first meeting, the schools need to do a better job of telling parents what is needed to graduate, Martin said. A 15-year-old child who is barely able to speak or write English may be unable to catch up to graduate with his or her class.

Tutors and accelerated programs are offered. But in some cases, the kids reach 20 years old and, according to state law, must leave at the end of the school year.

This year, seven youths left the ELL program because of their age. All have been invited to continue working toward their diploma in the adult education program.

Martin promised that each high school diploma – whether earned by an ELL student or a traditional student – will be earned the same way.

Graduating seniors must have 13 credits total in English, math, science and social studies. They must have one credit each in physical education and fine arts and a half credit in health and wellness.

Overall, they need 24 to graduate.

“We believe that all kids should graduate from high school college-ready,” Martin said.

In the past four years, Lewiston’s ELL students have gone on to several colleges including several in the University of Maine System, Thomas College in Waterville, Keene State College in Keene, N.H., and Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y.