A unified community educating the whole child
Bilingual Education
The East Ramapo Central School District offers a variety of Bilingual Education models for elementary and high school students.
Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE)
As per the New York State Education Department, Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) programs offer students of the same home language the opportunity to learn to speak, understand, read, and write in English while continuing to learn academic content in their home language. The students’ home language is used to help them progress academically in all content areas while they acquire English.
The goal of a TBE program is to provide students with the opportunity to transition to a monolingual English classroom setting without additional supports once they reach proficiency. Even though the amount of English instruction students receive will increase over time, in a TBE program, there will always be home language instruction/supports allowing students the opportunity to develop bilingually.
In the East Ramapo Central School District, the TBE program is offered to identified English Language Learners (ELLs) who are Spanish speaking in grades 2 through 12.
One Way Dual Language Bilingual (Spanish/English)
As per the New York State Education Department, a one-way Dual Language program model is for students who come from the same primary or home language and or background have the opportunity to be bilingual or multilingual. The teacher or teachers provide instruction in both English and the primary or home language simultaneously.
In the East Ramapo Central School District, the one-way dual language program is offered to identified Spanish-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) in grades K–1 for the 2026–2027 school year. The program will expand to additional grade levels in subsequent years.