Number of ESOL Students Increases at Local 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 at many schools, according to Fairfax County school officials.

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 as of June this year, 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. 

In the Burke and West Springfield areas, Sangster Elementary, Cherry Run and West Springfield elementary schools have less than 10 percent of students enrolled in programs for students who speak English as a second language. All other schools have 10 percent to almost 40 percent of students enrolled in these programs.

See the table below for data on Burke and West Springfield-area schools and see the attached PDF for data from all public elementary schools in Fairfax County.

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. 

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.

33.7

Newington Forest

North Springfield