A Message from SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Wayne
你好! Kamusta! Xin chào! Talofa!
These are ways to say hello in Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese and Samoan — some of the primary languages spoken by Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students and families in the San Francisco Unified School District.
Learn more about how we celebrate AAPI heritage at SFUSD further on this page.
Featured AAPI Staff and Students
"I am proud to be in a school community where we believe in each and every child's brilliance and power while overcoming challenges together."
- Lily Chen, National Board Certified Teacher, Kindergarten Cantonese Biliteracy at Jean Parker Elementary
"I was a student at Spring Valley, so it’s nice to come back to the community where I grew up and learn from the families that are now here."
- Erica Wong, 3rd Grade Teacher, Redding Elementary School
"I like playing in the school yard, my classroom, doing art with my teacher, and learning about space."
- Julian Ow, Kindergarten, Garfield Elementary School
"This is a really great time to make sure our students are ready to be adults with personal finance education to help them make the right decisions."
- Kingsley Yee, SFUSD Personal Finance Specialist
SFUSD Asian American and Pacific Islander Resource Guide
The purpose of this resource is to provide a curated list of materials that reflect some of the history and diversity of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. This is not a comprehensive list, nor does it reflect all the identities within the AAPI community. It is meant to serve as a launch pad for staff to use to explore their own learning, use with students or by families.
How do we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage at SFUSD?
In SFUSD, we honor our AAPI communities each day. Many of our schools offer Asian language programs and clubs for AAPI communities. In fall 2021, Leola M. Havard Early Education School opened the first dual-language Samoan immersion program in the mainland U.S. SFUSD also has employee affinity groups such as the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) Racial Affinity Administrators Group and Kabayan for Filipino/Filipino-American staff.
Additionally, the SFUSD Fa’aSāmoa Initiative (FASI) helps address the academic disparities amongst Samoan/Pacific Islander students. FASI stems from a 2018 HAPI Resolution passed by the SFUSD Board of Education and amended in September 2020 In Support of Equitable Services and Staff for Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Students.
SFUSD has long been a leader in teaching Ethnic Studies in high schools. Ethnic Studies classes have screened Chinatown Rising, which discusses Asian American youth activism and SF history from the 1970s to the present day. Classes have used this as a text to encourage students to think about contemporary change-making movements. Numerous Ethnic Studies student podcasts have centered around Asian American identity, model minority myths, and countering Asian American hate in society.
Now in its third year, the Filipinx Student Wellness Internship creates an empowering mental health educational space for SFUSD Filipinx students to develop skill sets to have agency over their mental wellbeing. They wrapped up their second Filipinx Wellness Conference at San Francisco State University, where interns presented mini-workshops related to mental health wellbeing.
Asian American Trailblazers in Civil Rights
View a recording of an in-person Teachers Workshop featuring Principal Liana Szeto of Alice Fong Yu Alternative School. The workshop highlights Asian American pioneers and the pivotal court cases that changed the landscape of U.S. civil rights, including the U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) that established the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship for all.
Lunar New Year Celebrations
This page was last updated on August 1, 2023