Founded in 1998,

Ecole Bilingue was created by ardent supporters of bilingual education. Our founder, Julie Fabian, served as our first Director/President, as well as Board President for our first seven years. Julie was instrumental in many aspects of our school, including the creation of Fête Française. Ecole Bilingue began as l’Ecole Maternelle, a full-immersion, French preschool. The first class consisted of just 16 four-year old New Orleans students learning about words, numbers, art and play in French. This program was the first of its kind in Louisiana.

L’Ecole Maternelle continued to grow each year and introduced its first kindergarten class in September 2002. Since then, Ecole Bilingue has added a grade each year and now offers a full elementary program and a middle school program through the 8th grade.

When the elementary school was added to the program, the name of the school was changed to its current name — Ecole Bilingue de la Nouvelle-Orléans. Plans were set in motion in that same year to gain accreditation from the French Ministry of Education. This accreditation was achieved for the pre-school classes in January 2005 and for Cycle 2 (1st and 2nd grades) in June 2010. With the growth of the school we continued our pursuit of more accreditation and in June 2012 we received accreditation for Cycle 3 (3rd through 5th grades).

Today, Ecole Bilingue is one of the finest French-immersion schools in the United States. From the first class of 16 pre-kindergarten students, Ecole Bilingue has grown to include more than 310 students ranging from age two years old to the eighth grade.