Assistant Superintendent for Multilingual Education Julissa Rincon Tomizawa and Executive Director Austin Nojane gave a detailed briefing on the district’s multilingual education programs, enrollment and performance data, and planned interventions to increase English proficiency and biliteracy.

Tomizawa said the district’s English-as-a-New-Language (ENL) program serves roughly 3,600 students and the transitional bilingual program serves about 2,009 students. She described the identification process — a home-language questionnaire at registration followed by an interview and a state language proficiency assessment — and outlined proficiency levels from Entering to Commanding.

Tomizawa and Nojane described recent NYSESLAT movement data showing students who slipped a level, those who remained static, and students who moved up one to three levels year to year. The district set a target to increase the percentage of students meeting the NYSESLAT benchmark by about 10 percentage points by June 2026 and said it had invested in instructional coordinators, professional learning communities, data tools and program alignment to accomplish that.

The presenters also outlined a campaign to boost participation in the New York State Seal of Biliteracy; the district said 22 students earned the seal in 2023–24 and 24 in 2024–25 and set a goal to increase the number of students earning the seal by 50 percentage points over 2023–24 totals. The office said it is coordinating with NYSED, school counselors and principals to identify eligible students early and to provide the necessary exams and materials.