Communicating with Families of Multilingual Learners in PreK Special Education

Many state education departments have regulations or recommendations about communicating with families of multilingual learners who have been identified as needing special educational services. For example, New Jersey special education code states:  “Written notice to the parent shall be provided and parent conferences required by this chapter shall be conducted in the language used for communication by the parent and student unless it is clearly not feasible to do so. 1. Foreign language interpreters or translators and sign language interpreters for the deaf shall be provided, when necessary, by the district board of education at no cost to the parent.”

There is no objectively “best” way to provide information to all multilingual families. Consider offering a variety of approaches to reach EACH family in a way that works for them. I recently received a question from a school district about communicating with a family when the father speaks and reads English and the mother only uses Spanish.  I suggested asking the family something like “we are working on making sure your child gets everything they need from our school. Partnering with the family is a very important part of this process. How do you prefer that we communicate these important policies and updates with you? Would you like us to send them in both English and Spanish? We know that translations from English to Spanish can sometimes be confusing or inaccurate. Do you have a way of translating school materials that works well for you? For example, do you prefer to have a family member translate for you? Do you use a translation app that you like?”  Working in partnership with the family is better than sending official paperwork home in English and expecting a bilingual parent to translate to their Spanish-speaking spouse. 

 

I generally recommend that districts or programs use a certified translator who has knowledge of education terminology. A good source might be contacting larger districts with large populations of multilingual families that might share a list of appropriate translators. If not available, find a bilingual educator who is familiar with the terminology in your report. Because these reports may use jargon or education-specific terms or legal terms, it is not ideal to just have any Spanish-speaking person do the translation. But, if an education specialist translator is not found, another approach would be to reword messages and documents in plain language that can be translated by a person or software and easily understood. 

 

I think it is always important to have more than one bilingual person double-check the translation. Keep in mind that a translation may be “accurate” but words that mean one thing in Spanish from one country might mean something different to Spanish speakers from a different country.  You need readers to see if there’s anything confusing between English and the additional language. For example, in preschool we sometimes talk about “messy play” but translating that into Spanish can result in terms that sound more like dirty play or filthy play. The words may be correct but the message is not the same. The best way to avoid this kind of confusion would be for an English speaker and a Spanish speaker to co-create the content, choosing wording that makes sense in both languages proactively.

I am often asked whether translation apps are acceptable alternatives to human translators. We have many reports of errors or confusion when using apps, but it is important to remember that human translators make mistakes as well. No system is foolproof. However, it is not advisable to rely on a translation app for a legal document such as an individualized education plan (IEP) because of the sensitive nature of the wording that describes legal obligations of the parties. If no suitable translators can be found, a program may have to use a translation app but they must have someone check the translation. Under those circumstances, it would be important to have a conversation to make sure the family members fully understand and accept the school’s recommendations. District and program staff may be unaware of additional factors such as the literacy levels of the parents in either English or Spanish. This is another reason to be sure to have a respectful and supportive talk with the family members about policies and reports to address any misunderstandings. 

And… always remember to never ask “does that make sense?” or “do you understand?” or “do you have any questions?”. People often don’t realize what they don’t understand or they may feel inhibited to answer these broad questions.  Try checking in with strategies like “Of the things we talked about, what is something you’d like more information about?” or “Which of these points seems most important to you?” or “What would you like us to work on next?” 

Feel free to add your questions or solutions to the comments. This is a complicated question for many individual educators and for schools, systems, and government agencies. We can all benefit by learning from each other!