Emergent bilingual population doubles over 5 years in Leander ISD

Of the over 65 languages represented in the district, the following are the top seven languages spoken by 20 or more students, Senior Coordinator of ESL Janie Kelly said.

• Spanish
• Korean
• Telugu
• Russian
• Tamil
• Arabic
• Hindi

Emergent bilingual students receive either English as a second language instruction with linguistic support most commonly in English and language arts or dual language enrichment in both English and Spanish, Kelly said.

ESL is offered to qualifying students from early childhood to 12th grade across all campuses while dual language enrichment is offered from early childhood to eighth grade at certain elementary and middle school campuses, Kelly said. For the 2024-25 school year, the district may begin offering dual language enrichment at Running Brushing Middle School.

The district also provides ESL courses for adults in the community through a partnership with Community Action of Central Texas and its Parents as Teachers programs for parents of children age 5 and under, she said.