Bilingual Education | State and Federal

The Round Rock ISD Bilingual Program is a full time Dual Language (DL) Immersion/Two-Way biliteracy program model. The DL program is required to be offered to native Spanish speakers qualifying as Emergent Bilingual (EB). All Spanish EBs students will be offered the DL program. English Proficient Learners (EPL) may enter the program during Kindergarten. Class size must remain within the state guidelines and space availability is limited.

The Texas Education Code (§29.051) requires school districts to provide every language minority student with the opportunity to participate in a bilingual or other special language program. Texas Administrative Code Chapter 89, Subchapter BB (§89.1205) specifies that each school district which has an enrollment of 20 or more EBs in any language classification in the same grade level district-wide shall offer a Bilingual education program in elementary grades through 5th grade, including 6th grade when clustered with elementary.

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Dual Language Application

Dual Language Application Deadline is May 22, 2024. For more information please contact Yuri Trevino.

Bilingual Program Goals

Provide the educational environment and instruction that will allow all students to become bilingual, biliterate and bicultural
Develop fluency in communication and literacy in both English and Spanish
Increase academic achievement in all areas

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EB Bilingual Feeder Pattern

In Round Rock ISD, the DL program begins in prekindergarten and continues through fifth grade at eleven designated campuses. Our district offers the 90:10 Spanish Immersion model. In this model, Prekindergarten and Kinder students are immersed in Spanish for the majority of the instructional day. All students in the program learn to read and write in Spanish first. Every year the student’s English instruction increases and the Spanish instruction decreases until 3rd, 4th and 5th grade where the instruction is 50% in Spanish and 50% in English.

90:10 Dual Language Model

Prekindergarten: 90% Spanish, 10% English 90% 90%
Kindergarten: 80% Spanish, 20% English 80% 80%
First Grade: 70% Spanish, 30% English 70% 70%
Second Grade: 60% Spanish, 40% English 60% 60%
Third Grade: 50% Spanish, 50% English 50% 50%
Fourth Grade: 50% Spanish, 50% English 50% 50%
Fifth Grade: 50% Spanish, 50% English 50% 50%

English Proficient Learners (EPL)

Entry Criteria for English Proficient Learners (EPL)

The DL program is the bilingual program that is required to be offered to Spanish speakers who qualify as Emergent Bilingual. Parents of English proficient learners who are interested in the program must attend a Parent Orientation meeting. Meetings are held at the district and campus level every spring.
The number of English proficient learners who will participate in the DL program will be based on the number of Emergent Bilingual students in each classroom. The number of available seats for participating EPLs will be determined by the campus administrators.
In the event that the number of qualifying EPLs exceeds the number of seats available, a public lottery event is recommended.
Siblings are not guaranteed entry into the program and must meet entry criteria.

Dual Language Lottery

Dual Language Lottery for English Proficient Learners

Campus administrators will communicate the need for a lottery, one week or earlier, prior to the lottery event. The communication should include the disclosure of the date, time and location of the event.
The student’s names will be transferred into seats in the same order they are drawn. Campuses will draw four students to be placed on a waiting list in the same order they are drawn.
Parents of students eligible to be included in the lottery do not need to be present during the lottery process to qualify.
Parents of students on the waitlist and who did not receive a seat in the DL program will be notified by the campus.

Supporting Research

The 90:10 program model is based after the research done by Professors Wayne Thomas and Virginia Collier. They are internationally known for their research on long-term school effectiveness for linguistically diverse students.

Students transferring from another Bilingual Program

EPLs who have consistently participated in a two-way dual language program in another district may enter at their grade level based on space availability and approval by the campus administrator.

Request to withdraw from DL program

Research indicates that it takes 3-5 years for a person to acquire a second language. If your child experiences difficulty making adequate academic progress, she/he will be served through the Response to Intervention process (RtI) in the DL program. At the discretion of the campus administrator and State and Federal, it may be determined that the student is best served in a monolingual classroom.

Acronym List

DL – Dual Language
ESL – English as a Second Language
EPL – English Proficient Learner
EL – English Learner
LEP – Limited English Proficient

Artistic graphic of a Round Rock ISD school bus

Transportation for Dual Language Participants

Transportation services are provided to students who live outside the NET Zone. A net zone is the area less than two miles from their campus, per school board policy. Transfer students are not eligible for transportation.