ESOL Program Enrollment Increases at Elementary Schools

The number of students who speak a foreign language in their homes is likely to exceed more than half of the student body population for many schools, according to Fairfax County school officials.

In the Centreville area, about one-fifth to one-third of students at local elementary schools are enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESOL) programs. See complete data for all schools in the pdf attached to this article.

Lynbrook Elementary School on Backlick Road in Springfield is the school with the highest enrollment of students in programs for students who speak English as a second language among all Fairfax County Public School, according to data from the school district. More than three-quarters (76.3 percent) of the 540 students there are enrolled in an ESOL program. 

Twenty Fairfax County elementary schools have more than half of students enrolled in these programs out of 138 elementary schools in the public schools system. The overall average across elementary schools in the county is 26.9 percent.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 14.1 percent of the Virginia population ages five and older speak a language other than English at home, but it increases to 35.9 percent in Fairfax County.

When school started earlier this month, officials saw a huge increase in the amount of students who will need English language lessons. A projected 31,500 students—or 17 percent of the Fairfax County student population—will enroll in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), The Washington Post reported.

However, not all the students who live in homes where English is a second language need more English instruction. Many of them are bilingual and fluent English speakers. Some ESOL students are immigrants, but the majority of them were born in the U.S. to immigrant families.

According to The Washington Post, the school system normally spends $3,300 per student for ESOL lessons, and this year, 7,652 students will enroll in lessons, costing $25.3 million.

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