SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today announced the California Department of Education will start collecting data for the Clearinghouse for Multilingual Documents (CMD) project that is expected to be launched later this summer.

The database will reside on the Department's Web site and will store information on where schools may access education-related documents translated into non-English languages.

"As part of my Paper Reduction Initiative, we are constantly looking for ways to reduce the bureaucratic burden placed on our schools," said O'Connell. "CMD is a great step in that direction. This innovative project will not only cut back on redundancy, it will increase access to documents already translated, thus, leaving schools more time to devote to their students' education. I strongly encourage schools to participate in this voluntary project by entering information into the database and sharing their translated documents with other schools in the state."

The need for CMD is critical to help school districts comply with state and federal laws. The California Education Code requires schools in some cases to send translated documents to the homes of students. Also, the federal No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to provide parental notifications in a format and language parents can understand. These requirements represent a significant workload for schools during a time of budget cutbacks and limited resources.

Many of the same documents are often translated into other languages by different school districts. CMD will help reduce this duplication of effort by serving as a conduit for discussion between school officials and connect them with others who already have these documents.

The public may view a presentation of CMD and enter e-mail information at Clearinghouse for Multilingual Documents. The database is being designed and developed by the California Department of Education and will be accessible to the public and educational agencies in late summer 2005.