February 23, 2007
LOCAL TRANSLATION OF PARENTAL NOTIFICATIONS TO BE MONITORED
On September 29, 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Assembly Bill (AB) 680 (Chapter 706, Statutes of 2006). This letter apprises you of the requirements incumbent upon the California Department of Education (CDE) as a result of this new law. These requirements have been added to California Education Code (EC) Section 48985. In informing you of the CDE’s new responsibilities, the letter reminds districts of the ongoing requirement upon schools for the translation of parental notifications, noting one of the possible consequences of noncompliance with EC Section 48985. Please share copies of this letter and the enclosures with all school-site principals as well as staff members who oversee English learner programs, school-to-home communications, and related areas of responsibility.
Background
For more than 25 years, EC Section 48985 has required that when 15 percent or more of the students enrolled in a public school speak a single primary language other than English, the school must send home parental notifications in both English and the primary language. The wording of the requirement, slightly revised as a result of AB 680, now reads as follows:
- If 15 percent or more of the pupils enrolled in a public school that provides instruction in kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, speak a single primary language other than English, as determined from the census data submitted to the department pursuant to Section 52164 in the preceding year, all notices, reports, statements, or records sent to the parent or guardian of any such pupil by the school or school district shall, in addition to being written in English, be written in the primary language, and may be responded to either in English or the primary language.
This means, for example, that if 15 percent of the enrollment at a particular school consists of Vietnamese-speaking students, the school is required by EC Section 48985 to send parental notifications in both English and Vietnamese to the parents/guardians of the Vietnamese-speaking students. But if 2 percent of the school’s enrollment consists of Samoan-speaking students, the school may send—but is not required by state law to send—parental notifications in that language as well.
As a result of AB 680, new responsibilities are incumbent upon the CDE:
- As part of its Categorical Program Monitoring (CPM) process, the CDE is to monitor schools and districts for their adherence to the translation requirements set forth in EC Section 48985, determining the types of documents and the languages in which a school district furnishes a translation; the availability of these documents to parents or guardians whose primary language is not English; and the gaps in translation of these documents.
- Further, by August of each year, the CDE is to notify districts of the schools within the district and the languages for which translations of parental notifications are required. The CDE is to make this notification by electronic means.
The passage of the law underscores the continuing responsibility of districts and schools to translate parental notifications under the conditions described in EC Section 48985. A copy of AB 680 (Enclosure A) is enclosed with this letter for your reference in discussion with staff.
AB 680 does not provide new funds for local translation efforts. In past years, some districts and schools have used various state funds to help pay for translations of parental notifications, including Economic Impact Aid, English Language Acquisition Program, Community-Based English Tutoring Program, School-Based Coordinated Program, and district general funds. Some districts have used federal funds, such as Title I—Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged, and Title III—Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient and Immigrant Students.
Districts and schools should be mindful of the potential consequences of noncompliance with EC Section 48985. For example, failure to comply could mean that a school is subject to a finding of noncompliance in the CDE’s CPM process, in which case corrective action would be required.
Federal laws such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) contain their own notification and translation requirements, separate from the “15 percent and above” requirement in EC Section 48985. Schools that receive federal funds for specific programs are bound by the notifications and translations requirements of the particular federal legislation. If you or your staff needs information regarding federal reporting requirements in NCLB, please contact Debbie Rury, Education Programs Consultant, NCLB Implementation and Coordination Office, at 916-319-0651 or by e-mail at drury@cde.ca.gov. If you have any questions regarding the IDEA, please contact Mary Hudler, Director, Special Education Division, at 916-445-4602 or by e-mail at mhudler@cde.ca.gov.
Steps by the CDE
As part of its CPM process, the CDE is already taking steps to monitor local implementation of the parental notifications and translations requirement of AB 680. In the CPM Cross-Program Instrument, for example, Cross Program item 6 specifically addresses the translations requirement in EC Section 48985; other CPM items address the issue of parental notifications for specific programs. During site visits, monitoring teams will rely upon enrollment data and local documentation to determine the languages into which a school is required to translate documents and to assess any gaps in the translation of notifications (e.g., the language groups for which schools do or do not provide translations).
In keeping with the new law, the CDE will notify districts by August 2007 of the schools within the district and the languages for which the translation of parental notifications is required. The notification to districts will be made by electronic means. Districts should use the information provided in these annual notifications to remind schools of their translations responsibilities.
Additional Information
To encourage districts in meeting the requirements of EC Section 48985, we are providing a second enclosure (Enclosure B) with this letter, “Information for the Implementation of Education Code Section 48985.” The enclosure highlights valuable resources for local efforts, including the online Clearinghouse for Multilingual Documents as well as a new publication from CDE Press, Quality Indicators for Translation and Interpretation in Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve Educational Settings.
We especially encourage your consideration of the formation of local translations consortia (see page 4 of Enclosure B). Such consortia can help districts to expand the number of translations available to them while reducing translation workload and costs.
If you have any questions regarding AB 680 and the CPM process, please contact Jim Greco, Education Programs Consultant, NCLB Implementation and Coordination Office, at 916-319-0375 or by e-mail at jgreco@cde.ca.gov. Contact information regarding other topics related to this letter is provided in Enclosure B.
Sincerely,
ORIGINAL SIGNED BY GAVIN PAYNE
GAVIN PAYNE
Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction
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Enclosures
1430 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814