Spokane Public Schools expanding Spanish immersion program

SPOKANE, Wash. -- More students in Spokane Public Schools will soon have the opportunity to learn in Spanish.

Next year, SPS will have a new stand-alone school dedicated to bilingual education. It will be the first of its kind in Spokane.

The school will be an expansion of the dual-language program already offered since 2017 by SPS and housed in The Libby Center near 1st Avenue and Haven Street.

Students currently enrolled at the Libby Center take 50 percent of their classes in English and 50 percent of the classes in Spanish.

The new school will tentatively be named "Spokane Dual Language Academy" and increase the amount of Spanish instruction.

Students will learn 80 percent in Spanish and 20 percent in English.

"Students that go through two-language education and develop the skills of bi-literacy tend to outperform students who receive just monolingual instruction," said Mauricio Segovia, Principal of Spokane Dual Language Academy.

Segovia said the goal is for students to be literate in both languages by second grade.

Class sizes at the new school will be smaller than the classes at Libby Center, with the new classes ranging from 18 to 20 students per class.

The school will move into its new building over the summer and classes will begin after Labor Day.

"The future of our school is very bring, and I can tell you that it's just an amazing opportunity," said Segovia

Enrollment for the Spokane Dual Language Academy is open now. You can find more information on Libby Center's website .

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