White Center Heights Elementary School will launch a Somali Language Enrichment Program in kindergarten starting in the 2023-24 school year. The new enrichment program will accompany the school’s well-established dual language programs.
This new enrichment program will start with students entering kindergarten in September 2023. Current students will not be impacted.
Starting in September 2023, kindergarten students not enrolled in the Spanish or Vietnamese dual language program will receive 30 minutes of Somali language learning during the school day. For the remainder of the school day, students will have English instruction.
Last year, a task force was formed to evaluate the school’s dual language program model. After engaging the White Center Heights community and collecting feedback from families, staff and community partners, the task force identified support for a Somali dual language program at our school.
The Somali language enrichment program is the next step in considering the development of a full Somali-English Dual Language program at a later date. The task force will monitor community support, enrollment, materials, and other considerations to determine the timeline for launching a full Somali-English Dual Language program, with support from central office partners.
Incoming kindergarten families will receive more information about this new program as they register for kindergarten. We will also share more details on our website in the coming weeks.