The Santa Ana Unified School District has received 4,332 waiver requests from parents wanting to remove their children from English-only instruction as required under Prop. 227.

Elementary schools garnered the bulk of the waiver requests _ 4,171. Intermediate schools received 161 waiver requests, while no requests were received at high schools.

Washington Elementary had the most waiver requests with 539. Pio Pico Elementary received 479 requests and King Elementary had 359.

Other schools had far fewer waiver requests. Santiago Elementary reported two requests and Jefferson Elementary received three. Kennedy and Sepulveda elementaries had four waiver requests.

Howard Bryan, director of bilingual education and services, said many factors have influenced school waiver requests, noting that some parents requested waivers to keep their children in a dual-immersion program that teaches English and Spanish equally to allow students to become fluent in both languages.

Bryan said the number of waiver requests also may reflect parental preference for language instruction programs in place at the schools.

He said schools with a bilingual program favored by a majority of parents tended to have more requests. Those with an English-immersion program preferred by parents, tended to have fewer requests.



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