We have worked with School Boards across the greater Seattle area to put policies in place that honor bilingualism as an asset of ELL students.
To give one leading example, we worked with the Highline School Board, which governs one of the most diverse student bodies in Washington state, to unanimously pass a Home Language Resolution. Highline’s School Board Resolution affirms their commitment to ensuring students develop and maintain home language, expanding Highline’s dual language, world language, and community language opportunities for students, and diversify their teacher workforce. Within its Resolution (07-16), the School Board also formally endorsed the goals of our Speak Your Language campaign to complement their existing goal that every student graduates bilingual and biliterate by 2025.