My Child\’s English Is Not Fluent Yet. What Support Will the School Provide?

When a child moves here from Taiwan, China, or somewhere else and English is not fluent yet, the school will provide support, but the type and amount of support vary from school to school, and parents need to know what to ask. California public schools all have an English Learner support system. When a child enrolls, the school first assesses English level and then decides how much classroom support to give. The assessment usually combines a questionnaire and a test. The questionnaire asks what language is spoken at home, and the test measures listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Together they decide whether the child needs extra English classes.

From the families we interviewed, Carmel Creek is a good example. One parent told us that when her child arrived, the teachers knew the child was a new immigrant and gave extra care. The school is small, and there is an ESL class every day, so the child settled in well. That example shows two things. One is that a small school has an advantage in looking after new immigrant children, because teachers can notice each child. The other is that the ESL class meets every day, not once in a while, so the child gets a chance to practice English daily.

In class, the school gives support in other ways too. At the start, teachers may give the child simpler reading material, or seat the child next to a classmate with stronger English, and homework expectations may be relaxed at first and raised to the normal standard as the child's English improves. There is no fixed timeline. Some children catch up in half a year, and some need one or two years. The school reassesses regularly to see whether the child can use less support or none at all.

There are a few things parents can do themselves. One is to bring the child's report cards and teacher comments from the old school at enrollment, so the new school understands the child's level. Do not bring English grades only. Math and science grades matter too, because they show the child is not struggling with the subject, only with English so far. Another is to ask directly who the school's English Learner teacher is, how many times a week the support classes meet, and whether they happen inside the classroom or after school. Those details differ from school to school, and only by asking can you know what help your child will actually get each day. A third is not to hold the child back a grade because of English. Repeating a grade hurts a child's confidence a lot, and most schools are willing to keep the child in the same grade and use support classes to build English.

One more thing is very practical. Children from Chinese-speaking families will not be in the minority in Carmel Valley. Asian students make up 30 to 50 percent of the 11 elementary schools, so there are many classmates with a similar background, and teachers are used to working with new immigrant families. When a child first arrives, the hardest part is often not English itself but the feeling of being different from everyone else. Here, that feeling is much lighter. English can be learned gradually, but belonging has to come first, and once a child feels they belong, English improves much faster.