Every fall you start planning the school district’s budget for the following year. It’s a multi-faceted task. It’s hard to forget to fund salaries or buses, but other items can be overlooked or deprioritized.
Translation sometimes falls into that category. However, it should be a higher priority for school districts across the United States to address the needs of students and parents with limited English proficiency, particularly as those populations grow.
Between 2010 and 2020, the number of English-language learners grew by half a million. English-language learners are about 10 percent of total enrollment in US public schools. The most common language of these students is Spanish (75 percent). Other common languages include Arabic, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
While some schools have a much higher proportion of English-language learners in their student bodies, translation is something all school districts should be looking at to meet regulatory requirements and ensure students have the support they need at home.
Since the emphasis is on meaningful access, translation or interpretive services may be necessary to provide information to parents who have limited English proficiency.
The Office of Civil Rights is part of the Department of Education that protects equal access in education, including ensuring that translation services are being provided by schools to parents when necessary.
Schools cannot charge parents for translation or interpretive services, so you need to plan to cover those expenses. Planning for these costs will help prevent lawsuits and regulatory issues from arising.
Most of the funding for translation in your school district will come from state and local sources. There are some federal programs that provide supplemental funding for translation for specific requirements, so it’s important to assess how these apply to schools in your district.
Your school district’s translation needs will vary based on several factors: the demographics of your school districts, parent-district engagement, types of communication sent, and your overall budget and program size. These are also the criteria the Office of Civil Rights uses to evaluate whether a school is meeting its translation obligations.
You’ll need to make these considerations at the district level and for individual schools as you allocate funding to meet needs.
Translation sometimes falls into that category. However, it should be a higher priority for school districts across the United States to address the needs of students and parents with limited English proficiency, particularly as those populations grow.
Between 2010 and 2020, the number of English-language learners grew by half a million. English-language learners are about 10 percent of total enrollment in US public schools. The most common language of these students is Spanish (75 percent). Other common languages include Arabic, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
While some schools have a much higher proportion of English-language learners in their student bodies, translation is something all school districts should be looking at to meet regulatory requirements and ensure students have the support they need at home.
Why budget for translation
According to a May 1970 memo, schools must offer all parents the same meaningful access to information, including details about school events, student performance, and parental participation.Since the emphasis is on meaningful access, translation or interpretive services may be necessary to provide information to parents who have limited English proficiency.
The Office of Civil Rights is part of the Department of Education that protects equal access in education, including ensuring that translation services are being provided by schools to parents when necessary.
Schools cannot charge parents for translation or interpretive services, so you need to plan to cover those expenses. Planning for these costs will help prevent lawsuits and regulatory issues from arising.
Most of the funding for translation in your school district will come from state and local sources. There are some federal programs that provide supplemental funding for translation for specific requirements, so it’s important to assess how these apply to schools in your district.
How to budget for translation
As you start to budget for translation, you’ll need to look at the needs in your district and understand the costs of translation and interpretive services.Assess needs
Your school district’s translation needs will vary based on several factors: the demographics of your school districts, parent-district engagement, types of communication sent, and your overall budget and program size. These are also the criteria the Office of Civil Rights uses to evaluate whether a school is meeting its translation obligations.
You’ll need to make these considerations at the district level and for individual schools as you allocate funding to meet needs.
Demographics
First, consider the demographics of your current enrollment. What proportion of the student body are English-language learners? What proportion of parents have limited English proficiency?
Information from school welcome centers and ELL programs will help you make this assessment.
As you consider the current demographics, you should also look at the projected demographics of the incoming kindergarten class. This information will help you understand any demographic changes that your budget will need to address to meet changing needs.
The more ELL students you have, the more you’ll need to prioritize translation in your budget.
Engagement
Next, consider how much engagement your school district has with parents and the community. The more engagement you have, the more you’ll need to weigh translation costs as you make budgetary decisions.
Types of Communication
Schools do a lot of communicating with parents – from weekly newsletters to student report cards, it can be a lot to translate. If your school district has a tight budget, it may not be able to translate every communication. However, the most important notices must be translated for parents.
If you’re working with a small budget, make communication priorities part of your guidelines.
Overall Budget and Program Size
If you’re running a large program with a generous budget, it can be easier to ensure adequate funding for translation. Smaller budgets for smaller programs can be trickier. However, it comes back to prioritizing what communication is critical to translate.
Estimate costs
After you’ve assessed what your school district’s translation needs are, you need to understand how the translation industry works and what market rates are.
Translation services are different from interpretive services since they focus on written language. Because translation focuses on written language, it’s much easier to scale and the cost per word will decrease over time.
When you work with a translation company, you may start with a glossary for terms for how you want specific things translated. This terminology list will be followed and added to as you keep sending documents for translation. In other words, if a phrase appears multiple times in a document, you may have to pay full price for its translation once depending on the context.
Some documents are specific to certain students and require privacy considerations. However, when you’re translating a document for mass communication like a newsletter, it only needs to be translated once. After the document is in the target language, you can send it to as many people as you’d like.
To compare translation services and rates, start by sending out a Request for Pricing or a Request for Proposals (RFP). Looking at the responses will give you a sense of the market rates and budget accordingly.
How to vet translation companies
Once you’ve budgeted for translation, you’ll need to choose a translation company. Since you’re likely going to use their services over a long period of time, vet companies carefully to ensure you choose an experienced, reliable company.Create an RFP
When you make an RFP, include information about your translation needs – languages and types of documents. Be thorough with this information so the translation company can be equally thorough in its response.
Once you receive responses to your RFP, look at the pricing breakdown. What’s the formatting cost, the translation cost, etc.?
Check for experience
You also need to check the company’s experience and expertise. Does the company hire native speakers? Are the translators familiar with K-12 education and translating documents in that field? How does the company ensure a quality translation?
Ensure FERPA compliance and data security
Since some of the documents your schools will need translations for will be protected student information, you need to know how the company addresses data security and complies with FERPA.
Budgeting adequately for translation services will ensure that your school district complies with regulations and that all parents in your school district can support their child’s academic growth.
Need translation services in your school district? Get a quick quote or email [email protected] to ask for service and pricing details.
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