Nurta Muktar, a 17-year-old refugee of Somali heritage, learned to read this school year at East High School. It likely would not have happened if East High did not provide classes in basic reading skills for English-language learners (ELLs). And the school likely would not have such classes, some Salt Lake City teachers say, if the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights (OCR) had not forced the Salt Lake City district to bolster services for English-learners in response to a complaint by a local activist in 2001. Salt Lake City's experience illustrates the array of changes a district may need to undergo to meet federal mandates on educating such students. After five site visits and eight years of monitoring, OCR officials released the school district from scrutiny in March, saying in a letter that ELLs "have meaningful access to the district's educational programs." Some Salt Lake City teachers who directly work with ELLs say their needs would likely still be ignored if the OCR had not gotten involved. They say they feel good about how the district is now addressing the students' needs.