Contact: Lisa Deffendall • First Posted: Thursday, October 5, 2006

Fayette County Public Schools has been awarded a $900,000 Foreign Language Assistance Program grant from the U.S. Department of Education to establish Chinese and Japanese language programs in the district.

The three-year grant will provide no less than 30-minutes a day of either Chinese or Japanese language instruction to approximately 2,000 students in four elementary schools. At two middle schools, 200 additional students will receive 55 minutes of instruction daily.

Classes will begin next fall. The schools that will participate in the project have not yet been selected.

The grant was awarded in part due to the 2020 Vision project – an open call to the community in 2005 to help develop a shared vision for the future of education in Fayette County. During the six month research and recommendation process, the World Languages Group called for increasing the foreign language offerings in the district and specifically recommended the addition of instruction in lesser-taught languages including Chinese and Japanese.