Orange County had nearly 78,000 English learners – students whose primary language is not English – enrolled in public and private schools in the 2024-2025 academic year.
Sailee Charlu, a 17-year-old incoming senior at the Orange County School of the Arts, wants to make sure that these students, and their teachers, have the resources they need to succeed.
As schools face a shortage of certified multilingual educations and a lack of resources behind programs, she’s working to bridge the gap for bilingual education at both the local and state level.
Charlu is working to get a piece of legislation introduced in California that would formalize a specific kind of bilingual education, known as translanguaging, that allows students and educators to clarify and ask questions in a second language while core instruction remains in English.
Already, Charlu got the Orange County Board of Education, with the help of Trustee Jorge Valdes, to pass a resolution in February that recognizes the importance of bilingual education and urges local districts to allocate resources for those programs.
While implementing specific programs is up to the individual school districts, the county board’s resolution shows support and raises awareness for bilingual education in the county, a county education spokesperson said.
“A bilingual education, particularly for primarily Spanish-speaking kids, is a good idea,” Valdes said. “While in the end we want our kids to be proficient in English, we do not want to lose years of learning on the way toward that goal.”
Charlu grew up in an Indian-American household in Orange County, where her native language was English. She started learning Spanish at a young age, which is where her passion for bilingual education developed, she said.
“Especially coming from an immigrant background, I think language functions as the gatekeeper to belonging,” Charlu said. “This whole thing just spanned from my love of the Spanish language.”
Now, Charlu is focused on improving bilingual education access at the state level through a bill she has drafted alongside the office of Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana.
California’s current education code states that multilingual programs may include, but are not limited to eight programs, most of which require an instructor to be credentialed. But translanguaging, which is not explicitly stated in the education code, does not require a separate certification.
“There’s nothing that states that translanguaging is even a possibility,” Charlu said. “So if it were to be passed in legislation, then our teachers are actually aware this is a certified instructional method.”
Charlu’s bill would ensure that translanguaging is a known practice amongst teachers, many of whom already speak a second language but might not be credentialed to teach in that language.
“It’s taking advantage of a native speaking teacher who might be credentialed in a single subject, but they’re using their full linguistic capacity to help that English learner,” Charlu said.
While Umberg did not have room in his legislative schedule to sponsor the bill himself, Charlu is currently circulating it amongst Assembly members’ offices to find a sponsor who will formally introduce it in the California Legislature, she said.
But before ever pursuing legislation, Charlu spent the past five years speaking at school board meetings, conducting research and founding two nonprofit educational programs — all to advance bilingual education in her community.
In 2022, when she was 13-years-old, Charlu sat down with three English learner students at El Sol Academy, a dual-immersion charter school in Santa Ana, for an after-school art camp with the hope of strengthening cultural expression through visual art and public speaking.
That first meeting transformed into Habla Arte, an educational program that has expanded to 15 Title 1 schools in Orange County, Sacramento, and Texas and six South American countries.
Run by volunteers and educators, the program uses visual and spoken storytelling to improve language proficiency and cultural expression.
“I can’t tell you the exponential transformation of these kids,” Charlu said. “Initially, they were so shy, but over a year-long program, (meeting) every Friday, these kids gain so much confidence.”
In addition to creating visual art, Charlu has a passion for performing spoken word poetry, which she has done as a member of Get Lit -Words Ignite, a Los Angeles-based poetry troupe.
In 2024, Charlu used her skills to create The Lit League, a multilingual spoken poetry program for middle schoolers. The league put together the first countywide middle school poetry slam hosted at the OC Rescue Mission in August 2025.
“We’re reaching from different languages and using these students’ full linguistic repertoire,” Charlu said. “It’s so powerful, because these kids start sharing things that really no child should have to go through.”
Now, Charlu is focused on the Habla Futures Initiative, a movement stemming from both programs to bring research, policy and education together to support multilingualism in classrooms.
“A lot of the work happens through partnerships and collaborations,” Charlu said. “All the support we can get through partnerships, but also financially, is amazing.”
Charlu has raised almost $10,000 for the initiative and program through grants, scholarships, and even proceeds from a children’s book she authored, “Curiosity & Me,” which discusses her experience growing up in an immigrant household.
While she has already made waves for bilingual education in her community, Charlu remains looking ahead, she said. This year, she will continue her efforts in bilingual education advancement while applying to colleges as a political science major, she said.
“I went into this when I was in eighth grade, and I just wanted to do something that I love, but also see what I can do to help my community,” Charlu said. “What I’ve learned is that the path is never straightforward. But I think you have to enjoy the journey too.”