SFUSD to Open First Mandarin Immersion TK-8 School, Doubling Kindergarten Seats

Mayor Daniel Lurie and SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su announced the district will open its first Mandarin immersion TK-8 school in fall 2027, doubling kindergarten-level Mandarin immersion capacity from 66 seats to approximately 132. The move responds to years of oversubscription and broad political backing, and signals a renewed city-district push to keep families in San Francisco public schools.

• SFUSD's first Mandarin immersion TK-8 school will open fall 2027 at Mission Education Center on Noe Street, starting with one transitional kindergarten and three kindergarten classrooms
• Kindergarten Mandarin immersion seats will double from 66 to roughly 132, addressing chronic oversubscription
• Mayor Lurie frames the school as part of a broader family retention strategy, connecting it to universal childcare, housing affordability, transit reliability, and high-impact tutoring
• Board of Education, teachers union, and 10 of 11 supervisors back the new school, along with a 900-family parent coalition

The basics: San Francisco Unified School District currently offers just 66 Mandarin immersion kindergarten seats per year — at Alice Fong Yu Alternative School — while hundreds of families apply. The new school will temporarily share a campus with Mission Education Center at 1670 Noe Street, adding one TK classroom and three kindergarten classes in its first year and growing by one grade annually. Mission Education Center's existing programs and enrollment are unaffected.