Syracuse City School District (Syracuse, N.Y.). Bilingual Program.

The Spanish Action League (La Liga), as the only service agency for Latinos in Onondaga County, was involved in advocating for a Bilingual program in the Syracuse City School District. Many meetings between the school district and La Liga took place during this time. The director of La Liga at this time was Anna Perez-Thompson. As a result of the efforts of La Liga and many other advocates, the school district pioneered the Dual Language program for children whose parents wanted to make sure their children learned Spanish. This program, which began in 1970, was a pioneer in New York State. The Spanish Action League began a bilingual library, encouraging parents and kids to continue learning in Spanish.

Seymour school was the first in the state to pilot a bilingual program. Nancy Villarreal was instrumental in starting the English as a Second Language (ESL) program. She was a champion of the community and fought for children and families. She was also the director of the program until 1993. Other contributors to the development of the bilingual program included Bob Deflorio, the District Coordinator and Director of Special Programs, and Jerry Brown, who was one of the first bilingual teachers in the program. As of 2005, Brown continued to teach at Delaware Academy.

In 2005, the bilingual program was a two-way program where English-speaking children were involved in order to learn Spanish. The program has grown since the population of Latinos in the Syracuse area has also grown.