This session focuses on the assessment of emergent bilingual students, with particular attention to early childhood and elementary populations, while remaining applicable across all grade levels. Emphasis is placed on distinguishing typical second language acquisition from disability-related learning needs, a critical issue in evaluation and eligibility decision-making. Participants will examine how language development influences academic performance and consider the limitations of relying on norm-referenced assessments in isolation. The session highlights the importance of integrating instructional response data and using informal assessment methods, including work samples, language sampling, and structured observations, to understand how students function in authentic contexts. A comparative logic framework will be introduced to support teams in differentiating language acquisition processes from potential learning difficulties, leading to more accurate and instructionally relevant decisions.