July 24, 2020 | JNCL Newsroom
On July 16, 2020, the U.S. Department of State issued an update on its website
clarifying exceptions available to the suspension of visa programs imposed by Presidential Proclamations 10014 and 10052
. The restrictions placed on H-1B and certain J-1 visa programs have put language and immersion programs in a difficult position as they struggle to fill unexpectedly vacant language educator positions just weeks before the beginning of the academic school year.
Individual states are now pushing to exempt their language programs. On July 22nd, 2020, Utah was granted an
exemption
for their dual-language immersion programs after America's Languages Caucus members Rep. Ben McAdams (D-UT-04) and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT- 01), along with Rep. John R. Curtis (R-UT-03) and Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT-02 ), wrote a letter emphasizing that schools are unable to fill dual-language immersion teaching positions due to the severe shortage of qualified language teachers in the U.S.