The Lee County School District is negotiating a contract with a company that will help translate and interpret 240 languages and dialects, which will further help the district communicate with families.
Student Enrollment Director Soretta Ralph said they have a bilingual staff within the student enrollment department, which is available to assist families.
“Oftentimes there are parents that come in that need assistance. We oftentimes don’t know what language they are going to come in speaking,” she said, adding that often it includes different dialects as well. “That dialect is sometimes another language.”
In order to communicate, Ralph said they often rely on Google Translate, as well as multiple staff members, to assist the family. Even when they get FOCUS up and running for student enrollment, it is still going to take a village to assist families.
Google Translate again is used when families contact them through the student enrollment email, so they can respond in the appropriate language.
ESOL Director Dr. Evelyn Rivera said they have a plan in place, as they are contracting with the company, Language Line Solutions, which provides translations and interpretations for the spoken and written language.
“The contract is going back and forth, fixing things on their end and our end,” she said.
When the contract is finalized, school and district staff will have support for 240 languages and dialects.
“It is going to be a wonderful support for everybody in here,” Rivera said.
There will be a special code to call on the phone and within 20 seconds someone will be there to speak the language, or dialect of the parent, she explained.
Ralph said the district is still growing, as in January alone they enrolled 1,200 new students. She said 160 of those students came to the district with IEPs.
The 2022-2023 application period began on Jan. 17 for enrollment. Ralph said 12,000 students have entered their applications for next school year.
“They have already been processed and this is the last week,” Ralph said last Tuesday afternoon. “We are getting 1,200 students in a month new to the school year. We have the same number of staff and we continue to grow. The school district is continuing to grow. We are really struggling as a district in every place.”
The School Board approved the English Language Learners Plan for school years 2022-2025.
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