Mandarin Immersion Schools

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any experience with or have had kids that have attended any of the mandarin immersion schools (public or private)
in the Silicon Valley area? If so, what are your thoughts? We are possibly moving to the area for the upcoming school year and our DC
is currently in a Mandarin Immersion school in the DC/MD area. We are hoping to continue when moving to CA.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately the enrollment process for public schools in California is already underway for next year and all of the Mandarin immersion schools have lengthy waiting lists, so you would unlikely to get a spot there for the upcoming school year. Your best bet is private. You could also enroll in another public for the year and try to get into one of the public immersion schools the following year, but that's a lot of transition, and there are no guarantees.

[Anonymous]

Traffic and commuting is a big deal so you need to specify a region more - SF, Marin, East Bay, South Bay, Peninsula. I am familiar with a couple of mandarin programs on the peninsula. In most public immersion programs, if your child is 3rd grade or older, the school cannot replace kids who move away as easily, so you have a good shot at a spot. If your child is going in to kindergarten then you have a problem because most of the lotteries run in late winter/early spring of the prior year. If your child is going in to first or second, it is mixed. Maybe they can get in, it just depends on the school and if there is a waiting list. There are a few private schools on the peninsula that are mandarin immersion. I toured ISTP many years ago. I never toured Pacific Rim. I don't know about space at those schools.

Most regions have one or more public mandarin immersion schools, but you need to be careful which district within the region you move to, because not all districts have them. And within districts some are just a strand within a school and some are full school programs. Of course the full school programs are ideal because the strand programs have conflicts about resources. You will find that the CA schools are not like the schools in the DMV. We are very lacking in resources. Good luck.

There are very active weekend Chinese school programs though. They run through the school year and the larger ones have tracks for kids who are already fluent and kids who are just learning. They are either on Sat or Sun mornings and are pretty serious.