Richmond’s public school system needs to hire 55 multilingual teachers to meet the state’s enhanced student-to-teacher ratios in classrooms by the start of the 2025–26 school year.
A 2024 state law mandates lower student–teacher ratios for English language learners. Last year, the Virginia Department of Education allowed flexibility, but this upcoming school year, districts who do not meet the mandated ratios will be at risk of losing their good standing and state funding. In total, the state is investing approximately $82 million to implement the new staffing standards.
The new ratios are directly tied to student proficiency levels. That means districts like Richmond Public Schools — which serve a high number of low-proficiency students — must hire more multilingual teachers than other districts.
Luciana C. de Oliveira, associate dean for academic affairs and graduate studies at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Education, said she welcomes the state’s move.
“When those teachers are working with these multilingual learners, they can differentiate instruction and be able to really provide the kind of support that these students need,” de Oliveira said.
According to de Oliveira, who published a book on supporting multilingual learners’ development, students in lower proficiency levels can advance into higher levels (as determined by the WIDA Access test) at a quicker rate with concentrated support from instructors, resulting in academic achievement and language development.
Currently, RPS employs 86 multilingual educators; the new ratio requires the division to have 141.
“We have about 4,300 multilingual learners that are identified and are receiving services,” said Jennifer Blackwell, the district’s director of multilingual learner success. “This is something that all districts are really looking at to increase the support that they have for their multilingual learners.”
Blackwell said the district is halfway to meeting its goal, after getting a head start in hiring at the start of the year with special permission from Superintendent Jason Kamras. Hiring more multilingual educators is part of the fiscal year 2026 budget, which sets aside $5.5 million for the effort.
“It really is invigorating to be able to meet new people again that want to be in these seats, that want to teach our children, our multilingual scholars,” Blackwell said.
Historically, the population of multilingual learners at RPS has grown by approximately 250–300 students every year, Blackwell said — with the exception of a period following the COVID-19 pandemic, when RPS saw a rise in enrollment of about 800 students. Blackwell said 97% of these students are Spanish speakers.
RPS had previously been under a 2017 corrective action plan — also known as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) — with VDOE. Blackwell told VPM News the district is no longer under that plan after implementing necessary changes, such as improving accreditation rates, raising Standards of Learning scores and increasing the number of English Learner students graduating by 18%. RPS leaders sent VDOE a letter in March requesting to come off the MOU after having “demonstrated significant progress.”
Blackwell said before the recent ratio changes, RPS was operating at the top of the previous ratio, which was one teacher for every 50 multilingual learners in the division.
“Even then, at some schools, we were over that ratio. For instance, at River City [Middle School], the ratio looked like one to 60. So it wasn't really a perfect system thinking about even the amount of just just the needs that our students have,” Blackwell said.
Blackwell, whose department is responsible for hiring for the district’s Language Instruction Educational Programs (LIEP) as a result of the 2017 MOU, said her team has interviewed close to 65 people for the new positions.
“It's not just hiring anyone to fill the seats. They definitely have to be culturally competent. They have to have a love for working with this population,” Blackwell said. “For me, that's a requirement.”
Blackwell said she recognizes the district will need to offer professional development and additional training during the summer break to continue their mission for working with multilingual learners. The vision, she said, is to close literacy gaps, improve graduation rates and incorporate language justice into everything that the district does.
“It really is invigorating to be able to meet new people again that want to be in these seats, that want to teach our children, our multilingual scholars,” she said.
De Oliveira, who also served as president of TESOL International Association — the largest international association for teachers of multilingual learners — told VPM News that when it comes to multilingual education, districts like RPS should be aiming for high-challenge, high-support classrooms. This she said can be done by committing to stronger teacher certifications, mentorship of existing and new bilingual teachers and culturally responsive training for all staff.
“We can't just expect just the multilingual learner teachers to be responsible for the teaching of multilingual learners,” de Oliveira said. "Teaching multilingual learners is the responsibility of all teachers.”
