Hello there,

I have a question: my kids will be moving with me in the USA and they don't speak any English. Can they go to the school if they don't speak English, and if yes, what kind of school? Have they to wait till they get to the same level of English as the american kids? What is going to be? One is 2nd grade and the other is 5th grade, they only speak French.

Thank you in advance for your help,

For the most part the second language in American schools is Spanish. Many schools offer ESL classes.

I've only done a little research into this because my fiancee's daughter only speaks a little English, but I think the short answer is it depends on the school system. The elementary school in the district where I reside has a special program for non-English speaking children that has them study English for part of the day, and then join their regular class for the remainder of the day. I'm curious to see how well it all works out once they arrive.

Thank you for the quick reply, does that mean they can go to school normally and then get addtional english classes so they would be able to catch up with this? So i shouldn't worrie for them not beeing allowed into the school because they don't know any English.
Thank you again for your reply KGSodie and YuandDan

No worries, I had a neighbor living across the street that immigrated from a Baltic country, their son could not speak any English, was admitted to the local public school, and within a year, the boy was doing fine, most schools have extra English classes for students learning English. You will not be denied entry to the public school.

Dan, thank you so much, i feel so much better now and i can get back to my husband which is upset now because i didn't teach the kids English till now... I am only a human been, and seems that everyone is expecting alot from me.

Thank you again, your help and your words are more than appreciated.

Andrea

Not to worry, Andrea. When I lived in Canada, my son only spoke English but I enrolled him in a school where they spoke only French when he was six. He did just fine and now speaks both languages fluently. It's amazing how easily kids pick up langugages once they're immersed in it. Your children will be fine.

Call the school system where you live, ours has a program where a translator will sit in the classes to translate and help from spanish to english and vica virsa for the students.

peonyflowers, your kids are of a great age to pick up English relatively easily... they'll probably astound you, and be speaking perfectly with hardly any accent within the year

Thank you Krikit, I am sure now that they will pick up easy, and you are right beeing in this environment it will speed up the process of learning English.
Brian and Isa, i can understand that a dolmetscher will be in class for translating in Spanish but am not sure at all for french speaking kids, just because of the number of immigrants from the french speaking countries.

It is good to know how is going to be this way it takes less pressure off my shoulders.

I gotta go to work now, but wish you all the best and a nice day tomorrow.

Andrea

Thank you so much, StillThePrettiest, you don't know how i feel right now, i feel more confident about. Thank you again for your support.

Andrea

I came to the States when I was 13 and my sister was 10 and we only spoke Spanish at the time. What happens is you enroll your kids in public school like any other kid (make sure you ask the school what shots they need so you can take care of that before they start) and then they are enrolled for most of the day in ESL (English as a Second Language) classes. There are children in those classes from different parts of the world. In my classes we had kids from Colombia (us), Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Brazil, France and Poland. They will probably attend these classes for most part of the day and as they progress with the language, they'll start putting them in regular classes. I started school at the end of September and by Christmas time I was already fluent. Children are like sponges and they pick up any language really fast.

Diana

Diana thank you for sharing. It helps alot.

I want to thank anyone in here who took the time to read and give an advice, I really do appreciate this site.

Thank you and good luck to you all.

The best thing they are kids, as such their brain is flexible to changes. Most school district have ESL (english as a second language) Program, it might feel awark for them in the first few months, but they'll be speaking english before you know it. In school they'll have friends, neighbor and so on, by the time it's high school graduation they may not even have an accent.