Roanoke City - EdTribune VA - Virginia Education Data

One in Seven Virginia Students Is an English Learner

Fri, 22 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Manassas City enrolls 7,663 students. More than half of them, 4,005, are classified as English learners. In Manassas Park, the number is 50.7%. These are not large urban school systems absorbing a national wave. They are small Northern Virginia cities, population 40,000 and 17,000 respectively, where the majority of public school students are now learning English as a second language.

Statewide, Virginia added 14,686 English learners between 2023 and 2025, an 8.5% increase, while total enrollment fell by 1,947. One in 6.7 Virginia students is now classified as limited English proficient. The growth is accelerating: 5,061 new EL students appeared in 2024, then 9,625 more in 2025.

The fastest-growing student group in a shrinking system

English learners grew faster than any other student category tracked by the Virginia Department of Education over the past two years. Special education enrollment rose 6.3% over the same period. The number of students classified as economically disadvantaged fell 3.3%. Total enrollment barely moved. LEP enrollment outpaced them all at 8.5%.

The share of Virginia's student body classified as English learners climbed from 13.7% in 2023 to 14.9% in 2025, a 1.2 percentage-point shift in two years. That translates to roughly one additional English learner for every eight students statewide.

This is not a Northern Virginia story alone. LEP enrollment grew in 112 of 128 divisions with comparable data across both years. Only 14 divisions saw a decline. The geographic spread is striking: Roanoke, 230 miles southwest of Washington, saw its LEP rate jump from 15.0% to 18.3% in two years, adding 477 English learners. Fredericksburg, a small city between Richmond and D.C., had the fastest rate increase of any division: its LEP share climbed 5.3 percentage points to 26.4%.

Where the growth is concentrated

In absolute numbers, the largest gains came from suburban divisions ringing Washington and Richmond. Chesterfield County added the most EL students of any division, 1,512, pushing its LEP rate from 14.1% to 16.4%. Henrico County added 1,376, a 23.0% increase. Prince William County added 1,309, bringing its LEP share to 28.5%, or more than one in four students.

But the divisions with the highest LEP concentrations are smaller. Nine Virginia divisions now have English learner rates above 25%. The top four all exceed 40%:

Division	LEP Students	LEP Rate	Change from 2023
Manassas City	4,005	52.3%	+62
Manassas Park	1,720	50.7%	+20
Alexandria	7,476	45.0%	+636
Harrisonburg	3,013	44.1%	+201

Alexandria and Harrisonburg are approaching the majority-LEP threshold. At current rates, both could cross 50% within the next several years. Manassas City and Manassas Park already did.

Two mechanisms, one pattern

Two forces drive English learner counts: new students arriving who speak a language other than English, and existing students being identified as needing language services. Virginia's data does not distinguish between the two, which means the 8.5% statewide increase could reflect immigration, improved identification, or both.

The immigration explanation has substantial support. Virginia's population grew by 76,439 people in the year ending July 2024, and 73.3% of that growth, 56,155 people, came from international immigration. Manassas City and Manassas Park are gateway communities where immigrant families concentrate. The Northern Virginia Regional Commission reports that immigrants make up 28% of Northern Virginia's population, with Fairfax County's foreign-born share reaching 30.9% in 2024. The school enrollment numbers track that demographic reality.

The identification explanation cannot be ruled out. Virginia uses a WIDA ACCESS composite score of 4.4 as the threshold for reclassifying English learners as proficient, a single test-based criterion. Any change in how aggressively divisions screen incoming students, or how many students clear the reclassification bar each year, shifts the LEP count without a single new family moving to Virginia. The statewide data does not publish entry and exit rates separately, so the relative contribution of each mechanism remains unknown.

What the data does show: approximately 74% of Virginia's English learners are Hispanic, consistent with statewide reporting that puts the figure at about 70% for the 2024-25 school year. LEP and Hispanic enrollment are not the same category, but they overlap substantially. Hispanic enrollment grew by 17,076 over this period, larger than the 14,686 LEP gain, suggesting much of the new English learner population comes from Spanish-speaking families.

A funding model designed for a different era

Virginia's state funding formula allocates one ESOL teacher position for every 50 English learner students. A 2022 Commonwealth Institute analysis found that this ratio produces a per-student supplement of roughly $725, or 13.5% above base funding. That is less than half the national average supplement of 39% and falls well below benchmarks from independent adequacy studies in other states, which recommend supplements of 35% to 41%.

"Virginia underfunds English language learners compared to other states... providing $725 per EL student, a 13.5% supplement above base funding, compared to a national average supplement of 39%." -- The Commonwealth Institute, 2022

At the current 50-to-1 ratio, 187,586 LEP students generate roughly 3,752 state-funded ESOL teacher positions. Whether divisions can actually fill those positions is another question. Only 3% of Virginia teachers identify as Hispanic despite Hispanic students making up 70% of the English learner population. The mismatch between student language needs and the bilingual teacher supply is widening as EL enrollment accelerates.

The federal funding picture is worse. Title III, the $890 million national program that funds supplemental tutoring, bilingual classroom aides, and teacher training for English learner programs, has been subject to delays and proposed elimination. Elizabeth Schenkel, Roanoke's English-learner supervisor, told Education Week: "I cannot proceed with hiring or renewing a contract without knowing when I'm going to have the funds." Roanoke's EL population doubled from about 9% to 18% in the last five years.

Growth is spreading beyond the gateway cities

The geographic pattern of LEP growth is shifting. Northern Virginia still holds 60.2% of the state's English learners, down from 64.0% two years ago. The fastest rate increases are now in places like Spotsylvania (+4.2 percentage points to 14.5%), Charlottesville (+3.7 points to 20.8%), and Waynesboro (+2.9 points to 12.5%). Stafford County, on the southern edge of the D.C. commuter belt, added 909 EL students, a 24.0% increase.

Even Fairfax County, with the largest English learner population of any Virginia division at 48,199 students, saw relatively modest growth: a 1.1% increase, or 542 students. The EL population in Fairfax is so large that it would rank as the seventh-largest school division in Virginia if it were its own district, larger than Chesapeake or Stafford. Loudoun County added only 439 EL students (2.8%), and Arlington actually lost 1,012, an 11.6% decline that stands out as the sharpest drop among NoVA divisions.

Arlington's decline is worth noting because it cuts against the statewide trend. One possible explanation: Arlington's high cost of living is pushing immigrant families to more affordable communities in Prince William, Stafford, and Spotsylvania, where LEP growth has been strongest. Another is that Arlington may be reclassifying English learners as proficient at a faster rate. The data cannot distinguish between the two.

7,300 per year, $725 per student

Virginia added roughly 7,300 English learners per year over the past two years. The state funds their instruction at $725 per student above base, or 13.5% -- less than half the national average supplement of 39%. Closing the gap to lower-bound adequacy would cost $132 million to $169 million annually.

Virginia ranks sixth worst nationally for EL graduation rates and third worst on 8th-grade NAEP reading scores for English learners. In Manassas City, the majority of students are already English learners. In Roanoke, Elizabeth Schenkel cannot hire a teacher because she does not know when her Title III funds will arrive. In Fredericksburg, one in four students needs language services in a division that did not have an ESOL program at that scale five years ago. The funding formula was designed for a state where English learners were concentrated in a few Northern Virginia suburbs. That state no longer exists.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.

One in Five Virginia Students Is Now Hispanic

Fri, 01 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT

In Manassas Park, seven of every 10 students are Hispanic. White enrollment has fallen to 9.8%, down from 19.8% eight years ago. Two hours south in the Shenandoah Valley, Harrisonburg crossed the majority-Hispanic threshold in the early 2020s and now enrolls more Hispanic students than all other groups combined, at 54.8%.

These divisions are the leading edge, not the outliers. Across Virginia, Hispanic students now account for one in five of the state's 1,261,501 public school students, crossing 20% for the first time in the 2024-25 school year. The milestone is the product of steady, compounding growth: 253,876 Hispanic students, up 59,229 since 2017, an increase of 30.4% during a period when total state enrollment barely moved.

Closing the gap with Black enrollment

The statewide data tells a convergence story. Hispanic enrollment has grown every year since 2017 except for a single COVID-year dip in 2021. Black enrollment has declined in seven of the eight years since, with only a small 371-student bump in 2023 interrupting the slide. In 2017, 96,361 more Black students than Hispanic students attended Virginia public schools. By 2025, that gap had collapsed to 14,794.

At the current rate of narrowing, roughly 10,200 students per year, Hispanic enrollment will surpass Black enrollment by 2027. If that happens, it will be the first time Hispanic students are the second-largest racial or ethnic group in Virginia's public schools, behind only white students. The shift would also reorder Virginia's claim on federal Title III funding, an $890 million national program that allocates 80% of its grants based on a state's share of English learners.

The convergence is driven from both directions. Hispanic enrollment added 8,964 students in 2025 alone, 3.7% growth on a growing base. Black enrollment lost 2,353, a 0.9% decline continuing a trajectory that has cost the group 22,338 students since 2017.

The share shift underneath

Raw headcounts capture only part of the transformation. In share terms, Hispanic students rose from 15.1% to 20.1% of Virginia enrollment between 2017 and 2025, a gain of five percentage points. Over the same period, white students fell from 49.7% to 43.4%, Black students from 22.6% to 21.3%. Asian and multiracial students each gained about one point.

The composition shift is not uniform. Three divisions now enroll more than 50% Hispanic students. Fourteen are above 25%. But 58 of Virginia's 131 divisions, nearly half, still have Hispanic shares above 10%, meaning this is not confined to a handful of gateway communities.

Division	Hispanic share 2017	Hispanic share 2025	Change
Manassas Park	59.4%	70.7%	+11.3 pp
Manassas City	62.8%	70.5%	+7.7 pp
Harrisonburg	45.9%	54.8%	+8.9 pp
Winchester	35.0%	45.1%	+10.1 pp
Culpeper	19.6%	32.8%	+13.2 pp
Richmond City	14.0%	27.4%	+13.4 pp

Northern Virginia: the established corridor

The largest absolute numbers sit in Northern Virginia. Fairfax County alone enrolls 52,672 Hispanic students, 29.2% of the division, up from 25.4% in 2017. Prince William County has 33,635, or 37.1%. Arlington is at 31.1%.

But the fastest growth is no longer in these established corridors. Chesterfield County, in the Richmond suburbs, added 5,775 Hispanic students since 2017, the largest absolute gain of any division. Roanoke City doubled its Hispanic enrollment from 1,569 to 3,152 over the same period, a 101% increase. Culpeper jumped from 19.6% to 32.8% Hispanic.

The geographic spread matters for staffing. When Hispanic enrollment growth was concentrated in Northern Virginia, the bilingual teacher pipeline could be focused regionally. Now divisions across the Richmond metro, the Shenandoah Valley, and Southwest Virginia need the same instructional capacity.

What is driving this

The most likely driver is immigration. Cardinal News reported that immigration accounted for 73.3% of Virginia's total population growth in the year ending July 2024, up from just 12.3% in 2020. Net immigration to Virginia surged from 766 in 2020 to 56,155 in 2024.

Virginia's Hispanic population has deep roots in a specific migration pattern. Over half of the state's Latino residents are of Salvadoran, Mexican, or Puerto Rican heritage, according to Encyclopedia Virginia. The Central American wave, which began in the 1980s during El Salvador's civil war, became the longest-sustained immigration flow in the commonwealth's history. Manassas Park and Manassas City, where Hispanic enrollment exceeds 70%, have some of the highest concentrations of Salvadoran-origin residents among U.S. cities.

Harrisonburg's growth follows a different path. The Shenandoah Valley's poultry industry has drawn immigrant workers for decades. The division enrolls students from 76 birth countries speaking 63 languages, with Spanish as the predominant home language for nearly half of families.

A competing explanation is reclassification: some of the measured growth could reflect improved identification of Hispanic students already in the system rather than new arrivals. The data cannot distinguish between a student who arrived from El Salvador last year and a student whose family has been in Virginia for a generation but was previously categorized differently. The sustained, steady nature of the growth, averaging 7,400 additional Hispanic students per year since 2017, suggests real demographic change rather than a one-time reporting shift.

The operational squeeze

The enrollment numbers carry concrete staffing and funding implications. Virginia had more than 3,200 unfilled teaching positions in the 2024-25 school year. Nationally, roughly one in four English learner seats lacks a certified teacher. Virginia's English learner enrollment, which overlaps heavily but not entirely with Hispanic enrollment, grew 8.5% in just two years, from 172,900 in 2023 to 187,586 in 2025.

Roanoke City illustrates the pressure. The division's English learner population now stands at 18.3% of enrollment, with EL counts growing from 2,057 students in 2023 to 2,534 in 2025, an increase of more than 23% in two years. Elizabeth Schenkel, Roanoke's English learner supervisor, told Education Week about the federal Title III funding delays that compound the challenge:

"I cannot proceed with hiring or renewing a contract without knowing when I'm going to have the funds."

The Trump administration is currently withholding $890 million in Title III funding nationally. The White House's proposed 2026-27 budget would eliminate the program entirely. For Virginia divisions where Hispanic enrollment is growing fastest, the timing is particularly acute: demand for bilingual instruction is rising while the federal funding stream that supplements it is in jeopardy.

The division-level flip

Hispanic students now outnumber Black students in 50 of Virginia's 131 divisions, up from 38 in 2017. The largest margins are in Northern Virginia, where Fairfax has 35,119 more Hispanic than Black students and Prince William has 16,670 more. But the flip is happening in places like Alexandria (margin: 2,411), Culpeper (1,707), and Richmond City, where Hispanic enrollment nearly doubled from 3,472 to 5,865 in eight years, while Black enrollment fell from 17,685 to 12,162.

The statewide crossover, when it comes, will not be a single event. It will be the accumulation of dozens of division-level crossovers that have already happened or are happening now. Fifty divisions have already flipped. In Culpeper, Hispanic enrollment jumped from one in five students to one in three in eight years. The division's Title III coordinator position did not exist five years ago. Whether the staffing, infrastructure, and instructional programs needed for a 20%-and-climbing student body will scale at the same rate as the enrollment shift itself is not a question anyone in Richmond or Harrisonburg or Roanoke has time to debate in the abstract. They are hiring, or trying to.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.