WASHINGTON — As schools begin re-opening across the country, ever-larger numbers of their students are young children attending public pre-school programs, which have been fueled by billions of dollars in state investments. The nation’s young learners are socio-demographically diverse, with Dual Language Learners (DLLs) comprising one-third of all U.S. children ages 0 to 5. These young DLLs have at least one parent who speaks a language other than English at home, meaning when they enroll in English-speaking pre-school, kindergarten or other early childhood programs, their brains are using multiple language systems that are developing at different rates. While DLLs stand to benefit disproportionately from high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs and services—which advance kindergarten readiness and later academic achievement—they have more limited access to such programs than peers in English-only households. This is even though DLLs make up a significant portion of the target populations that early childhood programs, including home visiting and infant and early childhood mental health services, aim to support. A new series of fact sheets from the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy provides key characteristics of DLL children and the households in which they reside for the United States overall and the 30 states with the most DLLs. The fact sheets are accompanied by data for all 50 states and Washington D.C., including on race/ethnicity. Drawing on U.S. Census Bureau data, these resources provide characteristics for this young child population including household income and poverty levels, parental English proficiency and educational attainment, top home languages spoken and household internet and computer access. These timely resources can aid efforts of state and local leaders seeking to ensure program access and quality for DLL children. Among the MPI findings, drawing from analysis of 2019-2023 data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey: - There are 7.1 million DLL children in the United States under age 5, with more than half of them living in just a handful of states: California, 1.5 million DLLs; Texas, 1.1 million; New York, 554,000; Florida, 542,000; and New Jersey, 282,000.
- DLLs comprise more than 20 percent of the young child population in more than half of all states and the District of Columbia.
- The top five languages spoken in DLL households nationally are: Spanish (56 percent); Chinese (3 percent); Arabic and Tagalog (2 percent each); and French (1 percent). Top languages vary below the national level.
- Even as bilingualism and cultural diversity represent important assets for the development of DLL children, their families exhibit higher risk factors that might impede their access to high-quality ECEC programs, including higher instances of poverty (43 percent of DLLs nationwide live in low-income families, as compared with 33 percent of non-DLLs). And while just 8 percent of parents of young children who only speak English have less than a high school education, the rate rises to 25 percent for the parents of DLLs. The parents of DLLs also exhibit high rates of limited English proficiency, with 42 percent reporting speaking English less than “very well.”
“These data resources map important dimensions of the diverse nature of the DLL population in all 50 states,” said Margie McHugh, director of the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. “As states and localities continue their efforts to close gaps in kindergarten readiness and position all students for successful education and career trajectories, strategic use of these resources can help ensure that their childhood education and care systems are best equipped to close gaps in opportunity and support academic success for this significant segment of their young child population.” Read the U.S. and state fact sheets here: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/data-profile-dual-language-learners. For an interactive data tool on DLLs at U.S. and state levels, click here. And the 50-state spreadsheet is accessible here. |
