Parents of special education students who don't speak English face another obstacle
Mireya Barrera didn't want to fight, but for years she felt ignored and unheard as she struggled to follow conversations during educational meetings about her son's special needs. The lack of qualified interpreters in her native language, Spanish, made conversations stilted and uncertain.
However, when Ian, who has autism, entered high school, Barrera decided to take action. She invited a bilingual volunteer from a local non-profit organization to join her at meetings and remind the school staff of her rights.
"I wanted someone on my side," Barrera said through an interpreter. "For all these years, they weren't making things easy. That caused a lot of tears."
Regardless of the language spoken at home, every parent has a civil right to receive important information from their child's teachers in a language they understand[1]. In the case of students with disabilities, federal law is even clearer: schools "shall take all necessary steps," including interpretation and translation services, to enable parents to participate in their child's education[2].
But, sometimes, schools across the country fail to provide these services.
Families who don't speak English are forced to attend progress meetings for their children without the ability to speak up or ask questions to their teachers. Cultural and language differences may prevent some parents from questioning what happens in school, creating an imbalance of power that advocates argue leaves some children without vital support. In some instances, schools delegate interpretation duties to bilingual students, putting them in the awkward position of describing their own shortcomings to their parents and guardians[1].
"That's completely inappropriate in every sense, and unrealistic," says Diane Smith Howard, principal attorney for the National Disability Rights Network. "If a student isn't doing well academically, why would we trust them to tell us?"
School districts blame a lack of resources for the shortage of interpreters. They claim they don't have the funds to hire more interpreters or language service agencies and, even if they did, there aren't enough skilled interpreters available[1].
In Washington and some other states, the issue has started to receive more attention. State legislators in Olympia introduced a bi-partisan bill this year to strengthen federal civil rights provisions in the state code[3]. Teachers' unions in Seattle and Chicago recently negotiated, and secured, interpretation services during special education meetings[3]. And school districts face a growing threat of parent lawsuits, or even federal investigation, if they don't take the language access issue seriously.
Still, efforts to expand language access in special education face an uphill battle due to the limited number of qualified interpreters, insufficient state compliance, and inadequate funding from Congress (despite a 1974 promise to cover nearly half the additional cost associated with providing special education services, the federal government has never followed through)[1]. The Washington bi-partisan bill aimed at offering more protections to families suddenly collapsed after state legislators stripped it of key provisions and advocates withdrew their support[3].
The special education system can be "incredibly difficult for everyone," says Ramona Hattendorf, director of advocacy at The Arc of King County, an organization advocating for the rights of people with disabilities. "And then it gets even more complicated when language comes into the mix." Across the nation, approximately 1 in every 10 students eligible for special education services is also an English Language Learner (ELL), according to federal education data, and that proportion is growing[4]. In 2020, nearly 791,000 ELL students participated in special education, a nearly 30% increase since 2012. In more than a dozen states, including Washington, the increase was even greater[4].
As the number of ELL students grows, so does the frustration of their parents with language services.
During the 2021-22 school year, the state of Washington's education ombudsman received almost 1,200 complaints from parents about schools[4]. Their main concern, across all racial and demographic groups, was access and inclusion in special education. The primary education ombudsman, Jinju Park, estimates that between 50-70% of the calls her office receives are about special education, and that 80% of them require interpretation services[4].
While most states give schools up to 60 days from when a student is referred to special education services to determine if they qualify[4], Washington schools can take up to half a school year. And if a parent needs interpretation or translation, the wait can be even longer.
"Current laws don’t support full parent participation," Park wrote to state legislators in support of the initial version of Bill 1305 in the House of Representatives, a proposal that ultimately failed. "For parents where English may not be their native language, they are often overwhelmed by the information and unable to meaningfully participate in the process."
Barrera, whose son attended the Auburn School District south of Seattle, often felt excluded from her child's education.
In kindergarten, after Ian's autism diagnosis, his special education team determined that he needed a full-time paraeducator, Barrera said. She turned to Google Translate and other parents for help drafting emails asking why she wasn't receiving that support until third grade. Copies of translated legal documents received little response, she says, until a director told her that translation was too expensive.
Bullying and safety became Barrera's main concerns when Ian entered high school. One day, he came home without a single hair out of place, and despite repeated phone calls and emails to teachers, Barrera never received an explanation.
Additionally, when Barrera asked to observe school, a teacher told her, "I don't even speak English. What sense does it make?" Vicki Alonzo, spokesperson for the Auburn school district, notes that the surge of immigration in the area over the past few years has led the district to devote more resources to help families whose native language is not English. Nearly a third of its students are multilingual, Alonzo said, and they speak around 85 different languages at home[5].
In 2019-20, the district spent around $175,000 on interpretation and translation services, Alonzo said; the previous school year, that figure was over $450,000[5]. Alonzo notes that the district did not receive additional funding for those services and that the costs included approximately 1,500 meetings with interpreters and the translation of more than 3,000 pages of documents[5].
The language access issue is a "national phenomenon," says Smith Howard, of the National Disability Rights Network. "It's a problem of resources and also one of respect, dignity, and understanding—that all parents should receive."
Teachers are also frustrated.
The Seattle Teachers Union protested and delayed the start of classes last year as part of demands that included interpretation and translation services in special education[3]. The final contract, which runs until 2025, requires staff to have access to various services that provide telephone interpretation (a live interpreter) or text translation (for written documents). The goal of this provision is to ensure that staff is not required to translate if it is not part of their job duties.
Teachers say these tools have been useful, but only to a certain extent: in rare cases, there are no telephone interpreters available for less common languages such as Amharic, and technical problems, such as call interruptions, are common.
"The availability of interpreters isn't consistent as we'd like," says Ibi Holiday, a special education teacher at the Rising Star Primary School in Seattle.
There is also a question of context. It's possible that translators may not have experience in special education, so families may leave meetings without fully understanding all their options, which can significantly slow the process[5].
"For many families, their country's school system works completely differently," explains Mari Rico, director of the Jordan County Jose Marti Early Childhood Development Center, a bilingual early education program at El Centro de la Raza. "Translating wasn't enough; education needed to be explained."
Many schools in the Seattle district employ multilingual staff, but the number and diversity of languages spoken are not consistent, Rico says. And there is a greater risk that a student's case will slip through the cracks or stagnate due to language barriers. Rico says she has had to intervene when families have gone months without an IEP meeting, even when their child was receiving services.
Hattendorf, of The Arc of King County, notes that technology-based solutions like those used by Seattle offer some assistance, but the quality varies widely[5]. And the services may not provide parents with enough time to process complex information and ask follow-up questions[5].
To the south of Seattle, the Barreras decided to transfer Ian to a different high school.
He graduated this year, but the federal law guarantees his special education services for three more years. Ian is now attending a transition program for students with disabilities, where he will learn life skills such as finding a job[6].
"We know that, with help, he can do anything," said Barrera. Adding, "everything is different. The teachers are trying to find the best way to communicate with me."
This special education reporting was produced by our organization, an independent, non-profit news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education, in collaboration with The Seattle Times[4].
Source
[1] McDaniel, L. (2020, March 5). Seattle to hire more interpreters in schools to address language barrier issues. King 5 News.
[2] Langan, L. (2020, October 21). What needed translation for MCAS test this year. The Boston Globe.
[3] State Senator John Rodgravies (2022, January 19). Senate Bill 1305- Special Education Parental Advisory Council. Washington State Legislature.
[4] Financial help for interpreters was cut from Washington's special education budget. (2022, April 13). KXLY.
[5] State of Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. (n.d.). Interpreters and Translators in Special Education.
[6] Parrish, H. (2022, May 18). Transition programs help prepare students with disabilities for the future. King 5 News.
"Despite the federal law's clarity on providing interpretation and translation services for parents with children who have disabilities, schools across the country often fail to provide these essential services, leaving some parents without the ability to speak up or ask questions during progress meetings."
"In Washington, the issue of language access in special education has received increased attention, with teachers' unions securing interpretation services during special education meetings and state legislators working on a bi-partisan bill to strengthen federal civil rights provisions in the state code. However, efforts to expand language access face significant challenges due to the limited number of qualified interpreters, insufficient state compliance, and inadequate funding from Congress."
