A big win for dual language immersion

On Monday, Sept. 28, Governor Newsom signed AB 2332 into law. The bill creates a new position, a Dual Language Immersion Coordinator at the California Department of Education, to support and expand multilingual education programs statewide. The coordinator will facilitate collaboration among school districts seeking to start or grow dual language immersion programs and maintain a statewide directory to help students, families, and educators access these opportunities.

“Language is an essential and inseparable part of the diverse communities that call California home. Multilingualism benefits our students’ cognitive growth, increases cultural understanding, and makes California competitive in the global market,” said Dahni Tsuboi, CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. “The State must build the necessary infrastructure to support and grow innovative work done by educators. AB 2332 is a step to ensure that the future of California is multilingual.”

AJSOCAL thanks Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez for his steadfast leadership, championing, and passing this bill in its first year of introduction:

“Dual Language Programs work, and they work well,” said González. “California has a history of exclusionary education policies that have prevented our communities from learning in the languages spoken at home, but AB 2332 pushes back. This offers a pathway of progress by creating a position whose primary responsibility is mobilizing resources and streamlining the process across the state.”

“DLI Programs are key to bridging the educational divide that our communities of color face, especially the AAPI and Latino students in Los Angeles. These programs can be incredibly cumbersome to establish, and they drain time and energy from our already overburdened educators. AB 2332 makes sure resources are maximized, and educators have the support they need to teach the next generation.”

AJSOCAL is grateful to the educators who empower the next generation of Californians while still finding time to lend invaluable expertise to this effort:

“In January, through coordination with the Los Angeles County Office of Education, we welcomed educators from across the region to observe our Mandarin dual immersion program at Northrup Elementary,” said Dr. Lily Jarvis, Director of Educational Equity and Accountability at Alhambra Unified School District.“That single day was a powerful example of what is possible when systems are intentionally designed to support collaboration and knowledge-sharing. AB 2332 will take this kind of impact to scale—creating the structure needed to connect programs, share resources, and support growth across the entire state.

“With the exception of Spanish, publishers whose curricular materials are aligned with the California State Standards do not provide options in other languages,” explained Dr. Nancy Hong, Director of Dual Language Immersion and Magnet Programs at Glendale Unified School District. “This leaves districts like mine and many others responsible for translating the core curriculum, finding supplementary resources, and creating additional instructional materials to address the standards in the partner languages. A Dual Language Coordinator will be instrumental in organizing efforts to work with publishers to provide standards-aligned materials across language programs and subject areas for districts statewide to readily utilize and implement.”