Latino parents in the ELPASO Voz-Lafayette leadership group are asking the Boulder Valley School District to better fund translation services so more special education documents can be translated into a family’s native language.
Now, the district provides either written or oral translations, as requested, of special education documents. While a written translation of a student’s final Individualized Education Program, or IEP, plan is provided, the draft version that’s given to families prior to the formal meeting to decide on services is translated orally.
Ten parents from the Lafayette group, which has been working with the school district for a couple of years on issues about special education, spoke at this week’s Boulder Valley school board meeting.
“We want and deserve changes in district policies so that there is equality for all in our community,” Yadira Silva, who has two children at Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer, said through a translator.
The Lafayette parents said they want all documents and written communication — including newsletters, messages and emails — provided in the parent or guardian’s native language. They also want the district to provide non-native English-speaking families with professional interpreters at all special education meetings.
District officials said they used feedback from ELPASO Voz and the district’s Latino Parent Advisory Council in improving the translation and interpretation department. The department created districtwide interpretation request and scheduling systems last school year, then opened up written translation requests to all schools this year. The department also provides translations for all district-level newsletters and messages.
“A lot of what the parents are asking for is part of what we’re doing,” said Boulder Valley spokesman Randy Barber. “We want our Spanish-speaking parents to have the information they need so they can participate fully. We want the families to know that we hear them.”
Special education Executive Director Michelle Brenner said she’s working with Translation and Interpretation Services Manager Don McGinnis on a timeline of when the district can start providing written translations of the draft version of IEPs.
“Ensuring that our families have what they need to feel informed and invested in the IEP process is very important to us,” Brenner said.
McGinnis said professional interpreters are provided by request at special education meetings, as well as at other individual meetings with teachers. His department has worked this school year to educate teachers about the services available, he said, as well as provide best practices for hosting meetings that include interpretation.
“Anyone in the district can tell us they need an interpreter, and it will happen,” he said. “We want to make sure those supports are there.”
Along with improved translation services, the parent group is asking the district to require that families receive a draft copy of the IEP at least five days before a formal meeting. Now, that’s a district expectation, but not a requirement.
Tangi Lancaster, the community organizer for the group, said native Spanish-speaking parents have reported not being given a draft copy of the IEP — that’s written in English — until during the formal IEP meeting.
Without information in advance in their native language, she said, parents can’t take an active, informed role as part of their child’s special education team.
“Using the words ‘expectation’ and ‘recommendation’ leave the door open to personal discretion and discrimination of the student’s (special education) case worker or whichever district staff member is sending the draft IEP,” she wrote in an email.
At the school board meeting, parents shared stories of frustrations in trying to navigate the special education system.
Maria Guadalupe Cardoza talked about being asked to pick up her son, who receives special education services, from his elementary school after he was suspended after an incident in 2018.
She said she heard from her son that he was treated badly at the school, but couldn’t get more information from the special education department. She also received a call from social services about the incident, she said.
She added that receiving special education documents in English meant she didn’t have information about her son’s goals and achievements or what strategies to use at home to support him.
“There are many difficulties, and I’m very frustrated,” she said through an interpreter.
Rini Nieves, a Monarch High School parent, said the need to address the inequities created by limited translation services is urgent.
“It is an emergency to address the fact that parents continue to receive information from the school district that they do not understand,” she said through a translator.
Adblock test (Why?)
