Our teams worked tirelessly with a broad coalition of stakeholders and policymakers to develop and advocate for a state bill that expands capacity for Dual Language programs across the state. Together we attended school board meetings, wrote letters to legislators, held meetings with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Education, and traveled to Olympia to make the case for dual-language education to the powers that be.
The Bill we helped pass, SHB 1445, provides a comprehensive approach to dual-language instruction for early learning and K-12 students, and is a pioneering model for culturally relevant education aimed at preserving students’ home languages while giving students who may have grown up speaking English only the opportunity to become bilingual.
The Dual Language Bill allocated funding for grants to school districts to establish or expand dual language classrooms, with additional incentives for programs in a language other than Spanish. Included in this is is also funding to build capacity within early learning to better serve and support young dual language learners.
In addition this bill also provides grants to school districts to establish long-term strategies to recruit, prepare and mentor bilingual high school students to become bilingual teachers and counselors in the future.
Read more about the Dual Language Bill here:
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