State Statute HB 302: Educational Language Services Amendments 53G-7-221

1. PURPOSE & PHILOSOPHY
   Weber School District Board of Education recognizes that district students and families communicate in approximately 100 different languages and that it is the board’s responsibility to ensure that all parents and guardians are given a meaningful opportunity to participate in their student’s education program. The purpose of this policy is to enable meaningful, two-way communication between the district and parents and guardians who need language services, and to promote access for such individuals to district programs, services, and activities. 
   
   
2. POLICY 
   Weber School District will provide verbal interpretation services and written translations to any and all individuals or groups within the Weber School District.
   
   
3. DEFINITIONS
   1. Interpretation: The act of contemporaneous communication between an English speaker and a speaker of another language wherein the words of one person are communicated to others orally in a different language.
   2. Translation: The written communication between an English speaker and a speaker of another language where the written words of one person are communicated to others in writing in a different language.
   3. Translation Coordinator:  The person at the District office responsible for coordinating translation services when needed.  This person is the secretary in the Equity Department. 
      
      
4. INTERPRETATION SERVICES
   1. The district will provide interpretation services, during regular business hours,  whenever requested by a parent, or whenever school staff or district officials can reasonably anticipate that interpretation services are necessary to meaningfully communicate with parents regarding important information about their student’s education or school or classroom activities.
   2. Interpretation services are also available for
      1. Classroom activities
      2. impromptu and scheduled office visits or phone calls
      3. enrollment and registration processes
      4. the IEP process
      5. student educational and occupational planning processes
      6. fee waiver processes
      7. parent engagement activities
      8. school community councils
      9. school board meetings
      10. other school or LEA activities
      11. other interactions between the parents of a student learning English and educational staff
      12. registration or enrollment materials, including home language surveys and English learning program entrance and exit notifications
      13. assignments and accompanying materials
      14. report card or other progress reports
      15. student discipline policies and procedures and meetings
      16. grievance procedures and notices of rights and nondiscrimination
      17. parent or family handbooks
      18. any other guidance, including guidance on when oral interpretation is preferable to written translations, to improve instruction and assistance by teachers, counselors, and administrators to a student learning English and the student’s parents and family
   3. Such interpretation services may be provided either at the location where the parent is seeking to communicate or by electronic means, such as telephone or video conferencing.
   4. Over-the-phone interpretation services are available to all schools and offices during regular business hours in over 100 languages. These services can be accessed by contacting the translation coordinator but are provided by a contracted vendor.
   5. Upon three days’ notice that such services are required, the district will provide interpretation services at public meetings organized or sponsored by the district (e.g., board meetings). All requests should be submitted to the district’s translation coordinator with as much advance notice as possible.
      
      
5. TRANSLATION SERVICES 
   1. The district will take all reasonable steps to provide parents, in a language they can understand, a translation of any document that contains individual, student-specific information regarding, but not limited to, a student’s:
      1. health;
      2. safety;
      3. legal or disciplinary matters; and
      4. entitlement to public education, eligibility for special education services, placement in the Multilingual Language Learner Program (ML), extended learning programs, accelerated courses such as Advanced Placement, or any other nonstandard academic program.
         
         
6. REQUESTING SERVICES
   1. Parent Requests
      1. Parents needing translation or interpretation services should contact the main office of their student’s school.
         1. Parents should feel free to request services to assist them in understanding their student’s assignments and accompanying materials.
      2. Parents needing translation or interpretation services to access district-level services should contact the Translation Coordinator at  801-476-7865.
   2. District Employee Requests
      1. Employees needing translation or interpretation services should contact the main office of their school or department.
      2. In order to manage the number of requests and avoid duplicating requests, each school/department shall have up to two designated staff members assigned to request translation and interpretation services.
      3. Employees should request the type of service (either translation or interpretation) that will provide the greatest understanding to the parent/guardian.
7. TRANSLATORS/INTERPRETERS
   1. Qualifications:
      1. The District will take reasonable steps to utilize interpreters who have demonstrated language proficiency through certification, who are employed by a particular vendor or service contracted to provide interpretation services or have education and community-specific experience. 
      2. Interpreters and translators utilized by the District will at a minimum have knowledge in both languages of any specialized terms or concepts to be used in the communication at issue and be trained on the role of an interpreter and translator, the ethics of interpreting and translating, and the requirement to maintain confidentiality.
   2. The District may not rely on or ask students, siblings, friends, or untrained school staff to translate or interpret for parents.
   3. Parents may voluntarily choose to decline the District’s offer of an interpreter and choose instead to rely on an adult friend/companion or relative for language and interpretation services, but school staff may not suggest this as an alternative to providing appropriate language and interpretation services. 
      1. Students and other minor children under the age of 18 may not serve as interpreters for school staff and parents during any formal or informal meeting or process.
   4. In the event of an impromptu phone or visit by a parent who needs an interpreter, District staff should utilize a resource line, or online service to communicate with parents.

Approved: 10/2023