The New York Department of Education will be required to report families who request translation of documents into their native language

The New York City Department of Education will be required to report on the number of families who requested the translation of special education documents into their native language, and how many people need this translation. This publication reports Daily News.

Corresponding changes will be provided by the new bill, which last Thursday, 17 of October, was introduced by the chairman of the Committee on Education of the Municipal Council Mark Treiger (D-Brooklyn).

It is noted that the new bill is designed to "increase pressure on the Department of Education of New York."

It is noted that according to the rules of the city, parents have the right to translate individual education plans for their children. However, special education observers say the urban translation support system is “filled with gaps.”

Traiger, in turn, firmly stated that “all parents should have access to their child’s individual curriculum.”

“I am committed to ensuring that the Department of Education meets IEP requirements and ensures that services are provided to students with disabilities,” Treiger said.

Translation difficulties

Today, the problem is that schools must pay for the translation of curricula from their own pockets, if parents so wish.

“That is, from the budget, which already covers language services for the entire academic year,” the source explained.

“This leads to the fact that some schools are“ postponing ”requests for translation, - said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, head of the“ Rights of Immigrant Students ”project at the educational non-profit organization“ Defenders of Children ”. “This happens especially often when requests are received at the end of the year - during which time the school budget is low.”

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Last year, the Department of Education launched a pilot program in three districts to transfer responsibility for transfers to the central office rather than individual schools. According to the department, within the framework of the program, the agency translated about 2400 documents.

“We are committed to serving our multilingual students and their families and have translated thousands of IEPs as part of our pilot program,” said Department of Education spokeswoman Danielle Filson. “We know there is still a lot of work to be done and we will continue to expand our programs to meet the needs of our multilingual students with disabilities.”

At the same time, Rodriguez-Engberg emphasized that many parents do not even know about their rights, and, accordingly, do not use them. “Many parents don’t even know that they have the right to request this transfer of IEP.”

It is noted that in 2012, Children's Advocates filed a complaint with the Civil Rights Department of the Federal Department of Education. In its complaint, the organization called on the city to automatically translate documents for any family that speaks a language other than English at home.

According to Rodriguez-Engberg, this complaint is still pending, and the city is “far from complying with such a standard.”

She also noted that the city does not track the total number of special education students who request an IEP transfer. However, she estimates that the number of such families could be up to 90 - based on the fact that 40% of city students come from families that do not speak English at home, and about 220 students have an IEP.

According to her, Treiger’s bill doesn’t fix the problem, but it can help the Department of Education “identify problem areas.”

“I think that any kind of reporting is necessary in order to assess the scale of the problem,” summed up Rodriguez-Engberg.