Four-year-olds at Barnes Elementary School started the school year Tuesday, Sept. 8, in the Beaverton School District's only schoolwide dual-language pre-K program, according to a BSD feature on the first day.
The free, half-day program teaches the alphabet, numbers, group work and sharing in both Spanish and English. Barnes, at 13730 SW Walker Rd., is the district's only school offering a full dual-language track from pre-K through fifth grade.
The program uses a two-way immersion model defined by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL). In kindergarten, students spend 80% of instructional time in Spanish and 20% in English.
English increases by 10 percentage points per grade until reaching a 50/50 split by third grade, according to the district's dual-language overview.
Students who complete the Barnes pathway feed into Meadow Park Middle School and then Beaverton High School for continued Spanish instruction.
Who qualifies
Children must turn 4 on or before Sept. 1. Families must have household income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, according to the BSD early learning page. Those who do not meet the requirements are placed on a waitlist.
Students zoned for Beaver Acres and Elmonica elementary schools can attend Barnes with district-provided transportation. Families from other attendance areas may apply if space is available but must arrange their own rides, according to the district's dual-language elementary page.
District expansion
BSD expanded its dual-language offerings in fall 2024, launching Spanish-English programs at Hazeldale, McKinley and William Walker elementary schools and a Mandarin Chinese-English program at Jacob Wismer. For the 2026-2027 school year, the district added bus routes connecting more neighborhoods to dual-language hub schools.
Barnes serves 432 students in pre-K through fifth grade, with 70% classified as economically disadvantaged, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Interest forms for 2026-2027 pre-K programs are available on the BSD Early Learning webpage.
