Adolescent multilingual learners (MLs) who have not had the opportunity to go to school on a regular basis and/or had entire years of no school are referred to as students with limited or interrupted formal education (or SLIFE for short). SLIFE are part of the larger very diverse group of MLs in the US schools and thus, possibly easily overlooked and/or silenced. Teachers, however, have the opportunity to negotiate the curriculum and create spaces and activities for adolescent MLs where their voices, who they are, and what they bring to the table, are valued and become part of the classroom teaching. In this context, we ask: How does an English as a second language (ESL) and English language arts (ELA) teacher use her position as an expert in ESL/ELA class to empower adolescent MLs with limited or interrupted education? We answer this question through a qualitative year-long study that looked at one ESL reading class for multilingual SLIFE where Ms. Sarah (a pseudonym) worked with several adolescent SLIFE from a variety of language and cultural backgrounds. Data consists of classroom observations, classroom materials, and teacher reflections. Findings suggest Ms. Sarah used her ESL/ELA knowledge and expertise to successfully (1) advocate to the school administration to create a daily 50-minute reading block dedicated exclusively to adolescent SLIFE; (2) receive a small action research grant to purchase classroom book sets specifically chosen for MLs with limited or interrupted education; (3) and empower MLs in choosing what and when to read and how to respond to the readings using their diverse linguistic repertoires. Ms. Sarah’s expertise and advocacy empowered her MLs to have their own classroom in which their voices and who they are inform the teaching and learning.