HISTORY OF UTAH DLI

HISTORY OF UTAH DLI

Former Utah Governor Gary Herbert

In 2008, the Utah Senate passed the International Initiatives (Senate Bill 41), creating funding for Utah schools to begin Dual Language Immersion programs in Chinese, French, and Spanish. In addition, then-Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. initiated the Governor’s Language Summit and the Governor’s World Language Council both with a goal to create a K-12 language roadmap for Utah. These groups aimed to address the needs for language skills in business, government, and education. In 2010, current Governor Gary Herbert and State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Larry Shumway, issued a challenge to Utah educators to implement one hundred Dual Language Immersion programs throughout Utah by 2015, with a goal of enrolling 30,000 Utah students. Portuguese was added to the program for the 2012-13 school year. German was added for the 2014-15 school year, and Russian in 2017. Current enrollment far exceeds the original goal.