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FCPS equity council hears presentation on rapid growth of English learners and expanded multilingual supports
Summary
At the Dec. 3 Equity Council meeting, Rose Santiago, director of multilingual gifted and talented services, told members Fayette County Public Schools is seeing rapid growth in English learners and outlined supports including a district platform, Title III-funded resources, contracted interpreters and multilingual ambassadors.
At the Fayette County Board of Education Equity Council Committee meeting on Dec. 3, 2024, Rose Santiago, director of the district’s multilingual gifted and talented department, outlined a rapid rise in English learners and detailed a mix of instructional, technological and family-facing supports the district is deploying.
Santiago told the council the district enrolls 45,232 students and “we currently have 8,170 active English language learners,” noting nearly 1,997 new students arrived since the first day of school. She described English learners as the fastest-growing population in the district and said the department manages programs for English learners, refugees, migrants, dual immersion, translation/interpretation and gifted and talented services.
Why it matters: council members pressed on capacity and funding because the influx strains staffing and compliance deadlines. Santiago said the district must screen students by home-language survey and include eligible children within 14 days to meet state and federal mandates, warning that noncompliance risks federal funding.
District supports and funding: Santiago described a district platform called Elevation to house compliance data and provide curated professional-learning resources. She said parts of the platform and classroom supports are paid with Title III funds — for example, headsets and bilingual dictionaries — while additional staff positions are district-funded. "I requested with Dr. Liggins 10 additional positions," she said, and the district currently supports about 122 EL teachers.
Family-facing services: Santiago described an interpreting and translation budget that includes contracted interpreters (reported as 98), a language-line service with more than 200 languages, translator devices in each school, and a Lexmark document-translation tool. She said the department trained eight multilingual ambassadors who together speak 16 languages to assist with family engagement and advocacy.
Instruction and capacity-building: Santiago emphasized that EL instruction involves short direct-service minutes from EL teachers combined with mainstream classroom instruction. "Our teachers touch our kids… provide the services 60 minutes a day for language, but they are with the regular teachers for 280 minutes a day," she said, arguing teacher professional learning is essential because the district cannot meet demand by hiring EL teachers alone.
Council questions and responses: Members asked whether students and families are protected amid immigration enforcement concerns. Santiago said, "While we have them in schools, our families our students are safe in our in our schools," and that the district is convening a family-preparedness committee with city partners. Dr. Liggins later told the council the district will interpret any future executive order with its legal office and abide by the law while striving to protect students.
Next steps: Santiago described ongoing community outreach (computer literacy classes, school-based ambassadors, partnerships with churches and libraries) and said the district will continue professional learning to build teacher capacity. The Equity Council did not take policy action on the presentation; the session was informational.
