Building better brains with two languages.

2023 - 2024 Kindergarten DLI Application Dates

Application Window begins during Kindergarten Round Up: Monday, March 13, 2023

All DLI Applications for students zoned to a DLI school must be submitted by Thursday, June 1, 2023 for inclusion in the DLI lottery.

(Garden Hills Early Decision Applications March 13th - 15th)

The schools listed below provide a Spanish Dual Language Immersion program for students zoned to their schools and for the grade levels listed. Students begin in Kindergarten and continue each year. The application does not guarantee your child a spot. Should applications exceed the number of available slots, the school will determine placement via a lottery process conducted at the local school during the first week of June. Please contact your child's school for more information. School principals will notify parents of the lottery results by the week of June 5th).

The Dual Language Immersion Program initially began in APS during the 2013‐2014 school year and has grown each year. DLI elementary schools add a grade level each year until the school DLI program spans all grade levels, Kindergarten through 5th grade. The APS Dual Language Immersion Program is a two-teacher, 50/50 model in which students spend half of the day learning in English and the other half of the day in Spanish. As the DLI program expands, it will continue through the 12th grade in the North Atlanta Cluster (Sutton Middle School, North Atlanta High School) and the Jackson Cluster (ML King Middle School, Maynard Jackson High School).

Research has proven that world language study boosts the brain. Results indicate that bilingualism is reliably associated with several cognitive outcomes, including increased attentional control, working memory, meta‐linguistic awareness, and abstract and symbolic representation skills. (Adesope, Lavin, Thompson, Ungerleider, 2010).

Dual Language Immersion programs are the most effective types of learning for nurturing bilingual/biliterate students.  The APS Dual Language Immersion program helps students to develop linguistic competence in both languages at the same time (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). Studying in two languages allows students to transfer knowledge and skills acquired in one language to the other.  They are able to feel comfortable and successful in one language while gradually building the second language.

By continuing to learn and develop using two languages, children’s educational and cognitive developments are enhanced.  Learning in two languages provides students with access to two groups of literature, an opening to diverse traditions, ideas, and ways of thinking, which can lead to open-mindedness, flexibility, and an ability to think in a different way.

o   Ensuring Highly Qualified Certified teachers. APS DLI Spanish partner teachers must demonstrate high levels of Spanish language proficiency in addition to meeting content area certification requirements. English partner teachers are also highly qualified and certified. In schools with two-way DLI programs, the English partner teacher also must hold the ESOL Endorsement or ESOL certification as the DLI program is the State-approved ESOL Delivery Model used for most of the English Learners in APS DLI program schools.

o   Ensuring that all students receive a curriculum in English and in Spanish that is based upon the Georgia Standards of Excellence, as decided by the State of Georgia and instruction focused on language development AND content achievement.