The ESOL Parent Services Unit started through a 1979 Title VII grant from the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs of the U.S. Department of Education. The purpose was to involve immigrant parents in helping their children in transition to the mainstream classroom. The initial Parent Services staff was a Hispanic parent specialist and a Vietnamese secretary.
Five years later, with another Title VII grant, the County increased the staff to three professional positions and expanded the Parent Services to three languages: Spanish, Korean, and Vietnamese. The staff continued to increase during the second half of the 1980s, adding Vietnamese, Cambodian and Korean parent services assistants.
Starting in 1995 a big expansion occurred. Six new professional positions and several supporting services positions were added to the Parent Services Unit. In 1998 the cluster model was implemented for the Wheaton cluster through a Challenge Grant from the Maryland State Department of Education. During the late 1990s the cluster model was expanded to all clusters.
At the present time, more than 20 staff members work with the ESOL parents in English, Spanish, French, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Amharic, Portuguese, and Arabic. They assist parents at Rocking Horse Road Center when they register their children for school and at their local schools.
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