More Than 17% of LGISD Students Now In Need of Bilingual Education Services

District is ‘Aggressively’ Searching for Bilingual Certified Teachers

Director of Federal Programs Nicole Vasut gave a report to the LGISD board on the Bilingual/ESL program in the district for the 2025-26 school year at this month’s meeting.

She told the board that there were 323 students who qualified to be in the program with 19 eligible to exit the program through testing which involves a combination of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The total number of students who qualified for the program amounts to 17.54% of the total student population.

Both bilingual and ESL (English as a second language) services are provided in the district.

There are bilingual teachers at grades PreK-2, with ESL services provided at all other grades. The state requires bilingual services to be provided through grade 6, however LGISD has been unable to find bilingual certified teachers for grades 3-6. The district applies for a waiver to implement ESL instruction in place of bilingual instruction each year that they are unable to find bilingual teachers for the required grades.

The district is aggressively searching for bilingual certified teachers offering an increased stipend for that position.