Timeline: The History of Billingual Education in the U.S.

Jan 1, 1839

First billingual education program began

In 1839, Ohio passed a law allowing the introduction of the German language to the public school classroom with parental consent.

Period: Jan 1, 1839 to Mar 14, 2013

Evolving billingual education in U.S. schools

Jan 1, 1847

Louisiana begin billingual (French-English) education

Jan 1, 1850

The New Mexico Territory adds Spanish to the curriculum

Period: Jan 1, 1851 to Dec 31, 1899

States add billingual curriculum

By this time, more than a dozen states have passed laws for a bilingual curriculum while many other territories taught a bilingual course without official approval. The primary language to be added was German (well more than even Spanish is witnessed in recent history).

Jan 1, 1864

Education in Native American languages prohibited (English Only)

Period: Jan 1, 1890 to Dec 31, 2009

# of school aged children not speaking English at home rose from 4.7 million to 11.2 million

Jan 1, 1923

Ban on foreign language curriculum ruled unconstitutional

Mar 1, 1968

The Bilingual Education Act of 1968

Introduced by Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough and signed into legislation by President Johnson, this valuable Act offered federal funding to schools to offer bilingual education to prevent discrimination.

Jan 1, 1974

Lau vs Nichols

Chinese speaking students in California were falling behind because of affirmative action that forced them to only use English in the classroom. They filed a lawsuit in 1971 that was first denied, but then honored by the Supreme Court in 1974. The Supreme Court ordered extra assistance to English language learners on the basis of discrimination based on race, religion, sex, etc... being forbidden in schools.