KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Wednesday marked the first day of school for kids in Blue Valley Schools.
It also marked the first time not everyone could enroll in one of the district's unique programs.
The district said it is evaluating the Chinese Immersion program which has been available for the last five years.
It allows students to spend half their day learning in English and the other half of the school day learning the same subjects in Chinese.
Parents were not able to enroll kindergartners in the program for the first time this year.
One parent, Jiahong Wang, worries the program will be dropped in the future.
She's helping her children learn Chinese with the hope they use it in a future classroom setting.
"I want them to learn English and learn English culture, but I want them to learn Chinese and learn Chinese culture as well," she said.
She moved into the school district with her husband a few years ago specifically for Blue Valley's Chinese Immersion program. She says it's the only one of its kind in the state.
"We were so happy and I was like, 'Okay that's great! My kids are going to have this opportunity to learn Chinese from an early age now," she said.
Wang is worried that opportunity will fade away.
"And of course I was very heartbroken," she said. "I was so sad. I remember I cried for like two or three nights. Every day all I could think of was, 'How am I going to continue this?" she said.
Being bilingual opens doors to cultures and new horizons and immersion programs can be a key to those experiences.
"Part of his identity is Chinese and if he does not have that access to his own heritage and his own heritage's culture and if he doesn't feel that his own language and culture is not valued in this country, you can imagine how much damage that can do to a kid's self-esteem," she said.
One year from now, it will be her oldest son William's first day at kindergarten.
She hopes the district keeps the program intact and allows William and other students the chance to participate in the program.
