Information for parents of kids in Mandarin immersion education

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  • Kansas district votes to close Mandarin immersion due to budget shortfall

    Kansas district votes to close Mandarin immersion due to budget shortfall

    Blue Valley School District, located in Kansas in a southern suburb of Kansas City, has voted to entirely shut down its Mandarin immersion program at the end of the year. After that, Mandarin will only be offered in high school.

    This is the only Mandarin immersion program in all of Kansas. To find another one, parents would need to move to nearby Kansas City, Missouri to the Foreign Language Academy there.

    There are two Kansas Cities. The biggest and oldest in Missouri, with a population of about half a million. Kansas City, Kansas, across the border in Kansas, has a population of 157,000. The next closest Mandarin immersion school is the St. Louis Language Immersion School in St. Louis, Missouri.

    In 2023 the district began sunsetting the Mandarin immersion program at Valley Park Elementary, leaving just Wolf Springs Elementary with a program.

    At its height, the program served as many as 550 students out of the district’s 22,000.

    Parents are fighting to keep the program alive and have a great website outlining what’s happening and why here.

    It’s all about the money

    The District says the motivation is money. It says it costs $1.2 million a year to fund the Chinese program beyond regular classes. It says it faces a special education funding gap of $18.9 million, due to state-level cuts to special education funding.

    Parents say the cost is closer to $763,000.

    District superintendent Gillian Chapman said:

    “Blue Valley remains a strong school district, but our financial reality is changing. Enrollment continues to decline with the national birthrate at its lowest level, resulting in less state funding. Operating costs continue to rise, and the state continues to fall short of funding 92% of special education excess costs as required by Kansas law. Last year alone, Blue Valley transferred $18.9 million from other district resources to cover the special education funding gap.”

    This is something I’ve often wondered about. It shouldn’t, theoretically, cost that much more for Mandarin immersion because Mandarin teachers aren’t paid any more than English teachers.

    The parents have an excellent overview of what they think is happening, and why their numbers disagree from the Districts, on their webpage here.

    More articles about the closure here

  • Fourth grade Mandarin immersion students from Maryland sing for First Lady

    The students performed the songs “Jasmine Flower” (茉莉花) and “Songs & Smiles” (歌声与微笑) The school’s Mandarin immersion program launched in the 2014-2015 school year.

    From: SHARON O’MALLEY
    September 29, 2026 Streetcar Suburbs Publishing

    Four fourth-graders from Paint Branch Elementary School in College Park helped serenade first lady Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan, the first lady of China, on Sept. 24 at the National Museum of Asian Art.

    The concert was a stop on Peng’s day out with her American counterpart during an official state visit to the United States with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

    Please read more here.

  • Utah’s Chinese Dual Language Immersion Program serves 12,000 students in 98 schools

    Reuters Connect

    The U.S. state of Utah’s Chinese Dual Language Immersion Program has served nearly 12,000 students from grades 1 to 12 in 98 schools, as many local parents are showing a vision that learning Chinese will help their kids gain better opportunities in the future.

    Implementation of the program started in Utah in 2009, one year after the state adopted a legislation to provide financial support for bilingual immersion education.

    “I have been learning Chinese for seven years,” said a local student with a Chinese name He Jie in Chinese.

    Please read more here.

  • Chapel Hill NC superintendent wants to to disband 24-year-old Mandarin immersion program

    The program at Glenwood Elementary will be disbanded and students moved to their neighborhood schools for the next school year. Earlier this month the school board had voted to move the Mandarin program to a different school. The superintendent said the program “would reduce the district’s flexibility to adjust school boundaries.” The program is popular and, as far as I can tell, has always filled its Kindergarten class.

    The District also wants to dissolve a separate world language program at Glenwood. More on that here.

    News & Observer By Tammy Grubb

    September 15, 2026

    Parents call out ‘false promises’ as CHCCS chief advises ending Mandarin track By Tammy Grubb September 15, 2026 5:30 AM

    Families learned Monday that Glenwood Elementary School’s Mandarin world language magnet program could end in June. Chapel Hill-Carrboro Superintendent Rodney Trice sent out an email telling district families he will recommend the school board disband Glenwood’s Mandarin world language track and move the students now enrolled in it to their neighborhood schools next school year.

    Please read more here.

  • Wyoming’s only Mandarin immersion program going strong

    Casper Elementary School Is Only Public School In State To Offer Mandarin In Dual Language Immersion

    Paradise Valley Elementary School in Casper is the only public school in Wyoming that offers Mandarin Chinese in a dual-language immersion setting where students spend half the day learning that language and the other half in English.

    Dale Killingbeck The Cowboy State Daily

    January 27, 2025

    CASPER — At a recent open house, Michael and Ruth Capshaw, and their 4-year-old daughter Lyra were excited about the potential for her to start learning to speak Mandarin.

    They were greeted by native-speaking Chinese teachers in the immersion classroom and on the walls were Chinese characters next to words and cartoon graphics. A crafted Chinese dragon model sat on a top of a bookcase.

    The Casper elementary represents the only public school in Wyoming that gives parents an option to have their child taught Mandarin in a dual-language immersion setting where students spend half the day learning the language and the other half in English.

    Please read more here.

  • Chapel Hill Mandarin immersion program move stirs anger

    Glenwood Elementary School students will move to different schools next August following a school board vote Thursday to split the school’s Mandarin language program. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board’s 5-2 vote moves the Mandarin dual-language track to Rashkis Elementary, displacing roughly 85 students at that school.

    Please read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/orange-county/article316925805.html#storylink=cpy

    More on the story here.

  • Parent pressure reverses decision to close Mandarin immersion program in Maryland

    A question I have, perhaps someone can answer this – do bilingual teachers receive more pay than monolingual ones? In San Francisco, they don’t. Buying a Mandarin curriculum certainly costs money, and having a specific dean for it is an extra salary expense. But how does it cost $1.2 million extra to run the program?

    SHARON O’MALLEY

    June 10, 2026

    In a reversal of an earlier decision, the Prince George’s County school superintendent announced on June 4 that the Chinese immersion programs at Paint Branch Elementary School in College Park, Greenbelt Middle School and Largo High School will continue with full funding for another year.

    Earlier this year, the county proposed to close the all-student immersion program at Paint Branch, which costs approximately $1.2 million a year to operate with 12 to 15 bilingual teachers and a dedicated dean. In addition, county officials said they intended to phase out the smaller programs at Greenbelt Middle and Largo High by denying admission to new sixth- and ninth-graders but allowing students already enrolled to continue in immersion until they graduated.

    Please read more here.