Another Community Inquiry Project Question

As a former ESL teacher in Spain, I have become very sensitive to the realities of language acquisition. As I have now returned to the U.S. and plan to teach here, I am thinking about the difficulties that many students may face if English is not their first language. When talking about urban American school environments, one of the top concerns is the language barrier among students and teachers. The following question is one of great interest to me:

How does the language divide/barrier effect student-teacher relationships, particularly with Spanish-speaking students who do not speak English as their first language?

I would like to address how the language barrier may inhibit classroom learning in the U.S. I would also like to explore the programs/efforts that have gone into effect in the schools to combat this language divide. Subesquently, how much money goes into these programs/efforts? What have the results of these programs/efforts been?

In West New York, census data states that 78.7% of its residents are Hispanic. My stepmother works in West New York public schools and tells me that the amount of students who cannot speak English is a major concern. I would like to futher explore this dynamic and hopefully discover the implications for urban education as a whole.