Almost 5 million students in the U.S. are English learners, more than a fifth of them here in California.

Under federal law, states and school districts are required to identify students with limited English skills and provide them with language assistance. But schools in some states, like California, have fallen behind.

That's why this week the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education jointly issued new guidance reminding schools of the obligations they have to English learner students.

Vanita Gupta, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, joins Take Two for more.