Translation Services in Public Schools

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For over five decades, educational law in the United States states that public school districts must communicate with parents in their native languages “to the extent practicable.”  After all, despite common misconception, the US has no official language. More so, the U.S. Department of Justice interprets the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as saying that school districts must notify parents who have limited English skills of “school activities that are brought to the attention of other parents.” That may involve written or verbal communication of events and other school happenings.

Translating your school district’s communications and newsletters into multiple languages is an essential component of your overall communications plan to help students succeed. At first glance, some school districts are more diverse than others, but studies show that over 20 percent of the US population speaks a language other than English at home!

As daily life revolves more and more around the Internet and digital sources, most families getting school information solely from your school's website. It’s important to provide that content in multiple languages to cater to the student population, and also make sure that said translation is accurate. Giving students the tools they need early on will help them succeed throughout their schooling and later in life. Especially post-pandemic, when many schools are short on staffing and schooling has gone online, effective communication is more important than ever. 

In this article, let's take a look at 3 important areas requiring translations in the school system, and discuss real case studies in which Idiomatic USA was able to assist.

Student Permission Forms and Registrations

COVID-19 forced the educational system to suddenly do an about-face from in-person learning to conducting a majority of classes online. With schools physically closed, it suddenly became impossible for students and parents to go to the school in person to register for events or sign off on permission slips, etc. Parents and students who spoke a language other than English were at an immediate disadvantage, as they couldn't go to the school to ask for help with the required paperwork. These forms were provided only online, and oftentimes, only in English. 

A school district in New York State got in touch with Idiomatic, expressing this same problem. The school district had significant populations of Spanish, Bengali and Arabic speakers, and were having difficulties in effectively assisting those families. Idiomatic USA helped the school district move its permission forms online using Google forms and translated the questionnaires and possible responses. In this way, the school district was able to automatically collect information from those parents and help make informed decisions. 

Student Progress Reports

As the saying goes, education also occurs outside the classroom, and a student's home life is important for in-school academic success. With that said, it's important for teachers to be able to communicate effectively with parents to help students along their educational journey. An important facet of that are the quarterly or monthly progress that teachers send home for each student. 

Idiomatic was approached by another school district, also in New York State, asking for help translating their teachers' commentary into several different languages for students whose parents didn't speak English. 

School Websites

We are living in a digital age, and an organization's website is the jump-off point when searching for information. For a school district, its website is the main point of contact for students, parents and staff. Websites provide information on school closures for holidays or inclement weather, and even the weekly cafeteria menu. 

Idiomatic was asked to translate one school district's website into 15 different languages in response to the area's growing immigrant population. The languages requested were as diverse as Filipino, Spanish and Creole. Idiomatic translated the website's content and eliminated copied-in graphics containing text, since an image's text is not searchable within the website. This allowed parents to effectively search for information on the school's website and play a more active role in their children's academics. 

If you need any assistance in translating materials for you school district, please get in touch here for a free quote and for references.

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