Does your elementary school offer a foreign language?

[Anonymous]

We live in the City of Alexandria and will be enrolling our DC in public schools. Or, so we thought.... We were shocked to learn that most of the elementary schools do not offer any foreign language exposure. Some schools apparently have after-school clubs put together by the PTA, but they are sporadic. Outside of the two schools that have immersion kinder classes, most schools do not have exposure of any type.

We were under the impression that exposure to a second language in elementary school was standard in this area and era of globalization, so this is really surprising. Ultimately, we're hoping for an immersion program, but would settle for at least a regular class during school. We're realizing that we are likely going to have to move to another area (Fairfax or Arlington).

Does your school offer a foreign language? If so, can you tell me what school and the type of program. Also, is entrance by lottery or based on neighborhood?

TIA!

[Anonymous]

alot of dc elementaries have cut language. offer it as an afterschool elective, often organized by parents...

[Anonymous]

Our fcps introduces chinese in k. the kids have it 2 or 3x a week by 2nd grade.

[Anonymous]

Fairfax (FCPS) has several full immersion programs (I think 12 schools?), but the admission is by lottery, and you have to be willing to transport your child to school if you are not within the boundaries of that school.
http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/OHSICS/forlang/partial.htm

There is also something called FLES that is in more schools (something like 30?) where the schools offer foreign language as a class in the kid's weekly curriculum.
http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/OHSICS/forlang/fles/index.htm

I am considering both options for my daughter. Our current school doesn't offer either, but we might move to put her in a school that does. I think it is a shame that in our area, more schools cannot offer these types of programs.

[Anonymous]

Arlington has a lot to offer with foreign languages. Two of the elementary schools are immersion schools. If you live in the school boundry, you can opt to go there without participating in a lottery. Additionally, Glebe elementary has Spanish 3 times a week starting in kindergarten. I cannot vouch for the other elementary schools, but the Spanish program at Glebe has been great.

[Anonymous]

I was told by the principal in our public elementary in Alexandria (FFC)that you can either do spanish emersion or it is an afterschool add on in the upper grades. One of the many reasons why we are thinking about private school.

[Anonymous]

My school offers spanish twice a week (during class) beginning in 1st grade. All tIt is not an immersion school, but is part of FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Arlington has 2 immersion schools, one elementary IB school, and several schools that offer, like Glebe, Spanish 3 times a week. Other schools offer before and after school programs in various languages, including Chinese.

Starting in either 4th or 5th grade, some Arlington students are also able to sign up for intensive summer programs in Arabic and Chinese.

The school system is making foreign language learning more of a priority but they still have some distance to go before there's foreign language education as part of every elementary school's curriculum (budgetary issues have forced the county to slow down the roll-out of language education in all elementary schools)

[Anonymous]

OP here:: Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to look into our options in both Fairfax and Arlington.