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Under a new court settlement, New York City education officials will soon be required to beef up training and oversight at schools to ensure they are providing translation services for families who don’t primarily speak English.
The agreement stems from a 2019 federal civil rights lawsuit that alleged a “pattern and practice” of failing to provide interpretation services across the nation’s largest school system. Families were unable to access communications about bullying, lead contamination, and even serious medical conditions, the lawsuit claimed. In one instance, a family who requested an interpreter for a meeting was asked by school officials, “Why don’t you learn English?”
About 356,000 of the city’s public school students come from families who primarily speak a language other than English at home, or about 44% of students, a population larger than the entire enrollment of Chicago Public Schools. Since the summer of 2022, New York City has seen an influx of about 48,000 newcomer students, many of whom are migrants who do not speak English, underscoring the importance of widespread interpretation services.
Under the terms of the new legal settlement finalized last week, the Education Department will expand “language access training” for a range of staff including principals, parent coordinators, and school nurses. The training will emphasize parents’ rights, best practices for interpretation, and how to make those services available, according to the settlement agreement. Central employees who help support schools, known as “language access coordinators,” will also receive enhanced training.
M’Ral Broodie-Stewart, a senior staff attorney at Legal Services NYC, which brought the lawsuit, is hopeful those efforts will pay off.
Translation for families has “not been happening on the ground in schools based on pure ignorance of the requirement to provide language access and how to actually get documents translated and how to get interpreters on the phone,” Broodie-Stewart said. “That’s been the biggest barrier for language access.”
The settlement requires city officials to collect more data on the number of requests for interpretation of documents and meetings that are fulfilled, though those figures will be reported to the plaintiffs confidentially. (City officials have previously made some of that information public.)
The Education Department agreed to send letters, conduct robocalls, and post on social media to remind families that language services are available, and it will post guidance for interpreting documents and meetings on its website. Officials must also create a new complaint form for families to report issues securing interpretation services.
Interpretation services are especially crucial for caregivers of students with disabilities who may struggle to advocate on their child’s behalf if evaluations, meetings, and special education learning plans aren’t properly translated. Each of the four families involved in the 2019 lawsuit had children enrolled in public schools geared toward students with complex disabilities.
The responsibility to arrange translations of many special education documents and meetings has long rested primarily with school staff, leading to a patchwork system of finding outside vendors or recruiting staff to interpret even if they had limited language skills or knowledge of technical special education terms.
City officials have taken steps in recent years to centralize the process. In 2021, the Education Department agreed to translate special education learning plans for any student who needed it, instead of relying heavily on school staff. Still, even though all parents are eligible for their child’s special education plan to be interpreted, that process is not automatic and requires parents to request such services. Broodie-Stewart said it should be offered when schools meet with parents to craft the learning plan.
Much of the interpretation and translation process for day-to-day communication and meetings will still be handled by individual schools, Broodie-Stewart added, though she said there will be enhanced oversight from the Education Department.
Hui Qin Liu, who speaks Mandarin and has a child with autism, previously told Chalkbeat that she struggled to understand why requests for feeding therapy went unaddressed or why her daughter’s physical therapy services were reduced. She also struggled to communicate with the school about why her child, who was nonverbal, came home with bruises and bite marks. The situation felt “hopeless,” said Liu, one of four families who were part of the lawsuit along with the Alliance for Families with Developmental Needs.
“It was like torture to not be able to get updates on my child, especially during emergency situations,” Liu said in a statement in response to the settlement agreement. “But I am now hopeful that others can get the translation and interpretation services they need to make sure their children are safe and are getting the academic supports they need to learn.”
Liu and the other three families will each receive $11,000 as part of the settlement. As part of the agreement, the Education Department did not admit to any wrongdoing.
A department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
