US: Lack of translators stresses immigrants in schools

Immigrants who do not speak English say they feel they cannot fully participate in their children’s education because of language barriers, which were exacerbated by the pandemic and for the return to classes in person.

They stated that children must act as translators, even though that is prohibited by federal law; that there are bad translations in telephone conversations and bad communication in relation to bullying episodes.

Experts say that the phenomenon is not limited to Philadelphia and that schools in many districts do not have good systems to meet the needs of people who do not speak English.

Philadelphia education authorities say they have made progress, including sending out notifications in parents’ languages ​​and hiring dozens of interpreters, called “bilingual cultural assistants.” They also ensure that the district has guidelines on how to request help with each person’s language.

The problem, however, persists. An immigrant who identified herself only as Mandy and asked that her last name not be used, said she had trouble sending her ten-year-old son, with special needs, back to classes in person, but decided that virtual education did not offer Sufficient support for non-English speaking parents.

She indicated that her main problems came up during special education meetings at her son’s old school. He still spends hours translating notifications into Mandarin because the school offers few translations of its materials.

During a meeting, a telephone translator said that she was not well informed about special education and refused to translate, so Mandy began bringing a bilingual friend to help her. On another occasion, a translator told Mandy that her son was going to be taught to “eat meat”, to which her friend intervened and clarified that they were talking about feeding therapy.

“It sounds kind of funny, but it was very frustrating, really,” Mandy stated in Mandarin, through an interpreter. “It would give the impression that immigrant parents are deliberately excluded and marginalized.”

Jenna Monley, deputy chief of the school district’s Family and Community Liaison Office, said the agency instructed school personnel to begin offering in-person interpreters for special education meetings whenever possible.

He added that staff are trained to handle these situations, but annual refresher and refresher courses are not required for most teachers.

“I think there are always going to be isolated successes. But there are some areas where we need to improve, ”Monley said.

Together, an organization of Latin American activists in Philadelphia, did a study on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Its executive director Erika Guadalupe Núñez commented that, apart from basic needs, education was a great concern, including communication with teachers who only speak English.

He said that education is a permanent concern, including the fact that children are asked to translate for parents.

“We want children to be children. That they are in classes and have the same opportunities to learn English that English-speaking children have, ”said Núñez.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights receives dozens of language-related complaints from immigrant parents each year.

In 2015, it issued guidance on the legal obligation to communicate with parents in their language, stressing that neither students nor non-bilingual staff should act as translators.

Monley said his district has 101 bilingual cultural assistants after hiring another 45 in recent years. They serve 108 out of 224 schools, but many go from one school to another.

Philadelphia Councilor Helen Gym, an advocate for education and immigration rights, says she wants interpreters to be in every school, every day.

“There is a long way to go before the clearly delineated rules on access to other languages ​​are met,” he said.

Gym said immigrant families are often overlooked and the number of bilingual cultural assistants was cut in half around 2011, after profound changes were made to the formula for allocating funds to education.

Bilingual cultural assistants remain the only bilingual staff in the schools, according to Gym, and they sometimes resolve situations outside of the schools. But his base salary is just $ 24,000 a year, he added.

Olivia Ponce, 46, says she once tried to speak to a school counselor when another student hit her daughter, Olivia Vázquez. There was no interpreter on hand and the counselor asked the girl to act as a translator.

On another occasion, Ponce went to school because a boy had bitten his son. The teacher wasn’t going to call her, but another mother alerted her.

“He didn’t know he had certain rights and that they couldn’t get a student out of his class to translate for us. Nor that they were obliged to get someone to help us. They never told us, ”Ponce declared in Spanish.

Monley said the district cannot comment on specific complaints and parents often do not file complaints. Many parents, for their part, said that school personnel never informed them that there was a formal procedure for filing complaints.

Experts say school districts everywhere have seen an increase in the number of non-English speaking students and parents. Dominic J. Ledesma, a researcher on the subject, said that many districts try to offer the services contemplated by the laws without thinking about making schools a more receptive place for immigrant families.

“Compliance with laws and civil rights,” he argued, “is as important as issues of equality. Those issues are widespread and systemic in nature, and are not limited to Philadelphia. “

Vázquez, who is now 27 years old and about to become a teacher at Swarthmore College, says she wants to help foreign students have more support.

“I want to do it because of my experience and because I needed someone who had the same physical appearance that I have, who would tell me that everything was fine and make me feel proud of my roots,” said Vázquez.