How do I enroll my child in a dual language immersion program?
After finding a dual language immersion program that fits your needs, you should contact the school to inquire the requirements for enrolling your child in the dual language immersion program. Many schools have waiting lists for students who want to enroll in the program. If the dual language immersion program is very popular, the school may select the students through a lottery. If there is awaiting list or a lottery, ask how to put your child on the list or in the lottery and what the process is for students to get enrolled in the program once they are on the waiting list. Many dual language immersion programs limit enrollment of new students to those entering in kindergarten or first grade. This requirement is needed since students that have been in the program and who may now be at third grade or above are quite proficient in both the target language and in English and are studying academic content in those languages. Students that do not have proficiency in the target language and English would not likely be able to successfully access the academic content in a dual language immersion program. In the schools where new students are considered for enrollment past the first grade, there is often an assessment of the student’s proficiency both in English and the target language that is a critical part of the decision as to whether or not to admit the student to the program.
Author: Sandra Mercuri
Dr. Mercuri is a nationally and internationally recognized educational consultant in the area of second language acquisition, dual language education, and curriculum integration for biliteracy development. She has over 28 years of experience in teaching in K-12 schools and at the university level in Argentina and the United States. After retiring as a professor from the University of Texas System, she continued to work on research on the development of academic language across the content areas, the use of translanguaging practices for language transfer, and the effect of long-term professional development on dual language, bilingual and ESL teachers’ instructional practices. Dr. Mercuri provides professional development for teachers and administrators as well as for parents. She presents at national and international conferences on issues of second language acquisition and bilingualism, dual language education, translanguaging pedagogy, and ESL strategies. Dr. Mercuri has published articles in the TESOL Quarterly, Talking Points, EJLTS, JMER, TESOL Connections, MEXTESOL, and the NABE journal as well as the Spanish professional journals The Colombian Journal of Bilingual Education: GIST and the Revista Educación y Pedagogía and more than twelve book chapters. Dr. Mercuri is the author of the book titled Supporting Literacy Through Science: The Challenge of Teaching...