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.

Elementary schools in the Fairfax Station area generally have less than 13 percent of students enrolled in programs for students who speak English as a second language (ESOL programs). The exception is Bonnie Brae Elementary School, which has 20.9 percent of its students enrolled in such programs, according to Fairfax County Public Schools data as of June of this year. 

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. 

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

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.