HUDSON–About 9% of the students in the Hudson City School District are learning English as a New Language (ENL), according to data released by Theresa Hayes, administrative assistant in the office of Coordinator of School Improvement April Prestipino.

The District has 161 ENL students in all. Almost 80% of them speak Spanish or Bengali as their mother tongue, and every grade from kindergarten through 12 has at least one ENL student who speaks these languages. There are 67 ENL students who speak Spanish, 61 Bengali, 11 Arabic, 9 Haitian Creole, and 5 Chinese. Other languages include French Creole, Gujarati, Tagalog, Urdu and Vietnamese.

The data classifies 75 ENL students (47% of them) as “immigrants.”

The Spanish-speakers designated ENL concentrate in the younger grades: 75% are in kindergarten through 6th grade. Of the Bengali speakers, only 56% are in those grades.

In addition to ENL students, there are students with foreign mother tongues who now speak English well enough not to need the English language attention that ENL students require.

ENGLISH AS A NEW LANGUAGE STUDENTS

IN THE HUDSON CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 2016-17

Language Students

Spanish 67

Bengali 61

Arabic 11

Haitian Creole 9

Mandarin & Chinese 5

French Creole 3

Urdu 2

Other* 3

Total 161

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*One each of Gujarati, Tagalog, & Vietnamese

ENL STUDENTS BY GRADE LEVEL

IN HUDSON CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

Grades Spanish Bengali Other Total

K – 5 50 34 22 106

6 – 12 17 27 11 55

Total 67 61 33 161