This comes as district officials expect a larger percentage of emergent bilingual students to join LCISD than in past years, Rosemary Anthony, director of the department of multilingual education, said in an email.
The board of trustees unanimously approved the program at McNeill and Phelan elementary schools at the March 18 board meeting. Board approval is required from the state to authorize that the program fulfills 120 hours of instruction that is supplemental to the regular school year, Anthony said.
How we got here
As LCISD’s student enrollment grows at the rate of its hypergrowth status, district officials project 23.7% of students will be emergent bilingual in the 2025-26 school year—an almost 9 percentage-point jump since 2019-20, according to district enrollment data.
If 500 students enroll in the program this summer, that would be a jump from the 200-450 participants in past years, Anthony said.
“The past few years we've spiked in enrollment, and we're anticipating the same if not larger increases in the future,” she said. “Residents in Fort Bend County are growing exceptionally fast, and Lamar CISD's emergent bilingual program enrollment is seeing the same growth rate.”
Who is eligible
Eligible students include those who are emergent bilingual and will enter either kindergarten or first grade in the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, according to district documents.
Students will prepare for the coming school year by receiving instruction from certified English as a second language or bilingual teachers to continue their development of English language proficiency, literacy and academic skills, according to the district website.
The details
The summer program will be held from June 2-26 from 7:45 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, according to the district website. Bus transportation will be provided.
Per the website, students will be assigned to one of the two campuses based on their home campuses:
- McNeill: Adolphus, Austin, Bentley, Frost, Hubenak, Huggins, Lindsey, McNeill, Melton, Morgan, Randle, Tamarron and Terrell elementary schools
- Phelan: Arredondo, Beasley, Bowie, Campbell, Carter, Culver, Dickinson, Gray, Hutchison, Jackson, Long, Meyer, Phelan, Pink, Ray, Smith, Thomas, Travis and Williams elementary schools
Parents can register their students online through their family access account, according to the website. The registration window is from April 1-May 1.
