moving to NoVA: daughter already in dual lang, missed lottery

[Anonymous]

We are moving to northern VA in August. My daughter is a rising 1st grader and has had a great experience with the two-way Spanish language immersion program at her current elementary school. We have missed the lottery, but I am wondering if an exception can be made to enroll her since she is already in such a public elementary program in another state. Has anyone had any experience with this?

We have considered moving in-boundary to a dual language program in DC, but my husband would greatly prefer to live in the suburbs, and he will be working remotely, so home most of the time, so this makes sense to me. We speak only English at home.

Is it possible to move in-boundary to a two-way Spanish immersion program in Fairfax? Or elsewhere in NoVA?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

For Fairfax: I suggest calling the world languages office, as this is really a question for them. Their number is on this page: https://www.fcps.edu/registration/dual-language-immersion-programs-registration#k

The website used to list the number of open seats, if any existed, at each immersion school. However, I don’t see that information now. If I were you, that’s what I would ask about, and then you’d know which school might be the best shot. People do drop out over the summer as some out of boundary families realize they won’t be able to make the commute work, or for other reasons.

I would be surprised if they give any special treatment for someone coming from an immersion program elsewhere.

I have children currently attending an FCPS school with an immersion program, and it’s a great program. Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Maybe check to see if Claremont Immersion in Arlington has a spot? There are some years when everyone gets in off the wait list.

[Anonymous]

You could rent in del ray for a year to get into mount vernon community school. People in here hate on ACPS (for good reason in the middle school), but we have so many friends who love that elementary school

[Anonymous]

We're moving to the area with a second grader who is fluent in Spanish after living overseas the past couple of years. After emailing several fcps schools, it appears to be my understanding that most schools have a wait-list for first grade through mid second grade, and you have to go to the end of the wait-list. I would recommend emailing whatever school you're interested in, as there was some variation in procedure, but this was the most common response; only one school did not appear to have a wait-list.

[Anonymous]

Spanish almost always has a wait list.

[Anonymous]

If your goal is to have your child become more fluent in speaking and writing in spanish, then also consider living in a spanish neighborhood where most of the children speak Spanish at home and with other kids in their neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

MVCS and Clermont are two other options. We went to MVCS but moved for middle. I will say that after 6 years there my son (who does have some issue learning challenges but was exposed to Spanish before elementary!) still tested as a novice on everything except listening, which was higher.

We were told that we could possibly go to one of the dual language schools in FCPS if our kids tested close enough to the grade level AND there was space. We considered moving to the Ravensworth inbounds but couldn’t find a suitable home. We are planning on supporting the Spanish our kids already know with extracurriculars. Second that reaching out to the world languages coordinator is the way to go. They were helpful.