SFUSD takes pride in its responsiveness to linguistically and nationally diverse students. Our families have a legal right and choice of which school and/or program to enroll in (General Ed, Newcomer Pathways, Secondary Dual Language Pathways). This includes recently arrived immigrant students with emerging levels of English. Counselors at the Educational Placement Center (EPC) explain the benefits of our newcomer pathway programs, and families are asked to sign newcomer pathway enrollment decline forms prior to being placed in a General Ed (GE) seat. If a student has declined placement into a newcomer program, you can find these decline forms on Synergy under the Documents tab. 

There are Newcomer Pathways at the following high schools: 

1. Galileo HS
2. Lincoln HS
3. Mission HS
4. San Francisco International HS
5. Thurgood Marshall HS

Middle School Newcomer Pathways

1. Everett MS
2. Francisco MS
3. Visitacion Valley MS

School Leader’s role:

• Establish a welcoming environment for multilingual students by ensuring signage and communications are shared in multiple languages and front office staff are multilingual
• Utilize the Language Line to communicate with families: - Language Line & Site PINs
• Communicate expectations to staff about generating a sense of inclusion and belonging for newcomer students
• Create space and time for collaborative teacher planning around the needs of newcomers and professional development around strategies to support newcomer MLLs
• Ensure the master schedule includes appropriate levels of ELD and sheltered content classes when feasible

Site Counselor’s role:

• Welcome and enroll the student. 
• All English learners until reclassified, must receive designated ELD as a period in their schedule.
• Sites must prioritize designated ELD in the student’s schedule.
  •  If there are sheltered content classes offered at your site with space, please prioritize those classes in the student’s schedule next. 
  • If there are no sheltered content classes, then you may schedule the student in GE classes that provide Integrated ELD. 

Teacher’s role: 

• All teachers in SFUSD have an English language authorization or CLAD credential that certifies they have been trained to support multilingual learners with differentiated instruction and scaffolds. 
• Here are 5 Strategies to Support Multilingual Students with Emerging English Language Skills in the General Education Classroom