Switching schools, switching states?

One concern many parents have when starting their child in Mandarin immersion is that they’ll never be able to leave their town, much less their school, without giving up Mandarin.

But with  literally dozens of Mandarin immersion programs opening up around the country these days, that’s less a problem than it used to be.

In recent weeks, the MIPC has gotten emails from a family in Seattle thinking of moving to San Francisco and one in Minnesota thinking of moving to Portland. During the summer we heard from folks looking to move to New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

In San Francisco we’re lucky to have two public programs, Starr King and Jose Ortega, so we have schools to move between within our city, as well as a private option, the Chinese American International School.

Though we’re also hearing about more movement between private Mandarin immersion schools and public ones, most likely because of the economic downturn. The $20K yearly tuition is less affordable to many families and public options keep popping up.

At a time when moving for a new job trumps just about every other consideration, what possibilities are families finding out there? How difficult is it to transfer between schools or programs and how has the transition gone? We’d love to hear.