Dearborn Schools Unveils Plan to Expand Services for Non-English Speaking Students, Parents

A plan that will meet a language requirement of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights will be fully functional by the time students file back into school buildings this fall, according to Dearborn Public Schools officials.

The plan was formulated after the federal civil rights investigators they needed to non-English-speaking parents and students. A complaint from a school led to the inquiry.

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Supt. Brian Whiston said the district is working diligently to implement the new plan, and has always tried to meet the needs of everyone associated with the diverse, 18,500-student district.

“The district has always made an effort to meet the needs of our parents and help them become involved in their child’s education,” he said. “This plan will make sure that those efforts are coordinated, tracked, and sustained.”

Jill Chockol, the associate superintendent for elementary instruction, said the plan sets the stage to go beyond the civil rights requirement.

“We’re hiring a person who will take care of translation for the district,” she said. “It’s difficult because students speak about 40 different languages that we’ve counted. But we’re doing everything we can to make sure they’re informed.”

Plan and Timeline

The plan submitted to the OCR on June 29 laid out the steps the district will take to assist the needs of parents and students with limited English usage to give them access to all programs and opportunities that exist within the district–which serves the most concentrated Arabic-speaking population in the United States.

According to the resolution agreement reached by the district and the federal government,  the following provisions will be made to assist students and parents.

• The district is currently seeking to hire a “liaison” to coordinate the translation of documents read by students and teachers, and provide translation by request from parents and students. This person would be full-time, and earn $30,000 to $40,000 per year. The district will likely make a selection this summer, said David Mustonen, the district’s spokesman. General fund dollars will be used to pay the liaison.
• Several documents will be translated into languages used by 60 percent of families. This includes but is not limited to procedural safeguards, special education eligibility and placement, disciplinary notices, home language survey, emergency notification forms, reports cards, progress reports, conference notices, student and parent handbooks, academic options and  planning for advanced placement tests, college planning, counseling and guidance services, screening procedures forms, parent permission forms, and announcements are distributed to students and parents that contain information about school and district activities.
• These documents will be translated by August 2012, according to the plan. Mustonen said that the district has always translated several documents, but this plan will expand the offerings. All translated documents will be placed on a website accessible to the OCR.
• The district will ensure that availability of services for language assistance in all schools will be publicized and made accessible to non-English speaking parents. Parents and students will need to identify their language of preference. The statement of availability of language assistance will be placed in district publications. Parents will not be required to provide additional corroboration of language skills.
• An updated language survey will be completed in September 2012. 
• Communication with families through online means about students' academic progress will be coordinated through Wayne County. The statement of language assistance in all known languages will be accessible to district families on the district website will be available in the fall of 2012. 
• Every school in the district will maintain a list of LEP parents identified as needing language assistance and the type of language assistance they need. The centralized list will be available through the computerized records of the district and will be available to all staff. 
• The district’s human resources department, in conjunction with the bilingual department, currently ensures that interpreters and translators are trained on their roles and the ethics of interpreting and the need to maintain confidentiality.  Beginning in August 2012, the district will provide training for district employees.
• The district will have an evaluation process in place to evaluate the procedures that make language assistance available to families. The OCR will have access to the evaluation.

Closing Language Gaps

Dearborn Schools maintains that they have always tried their best to make sure students and parents understand lessons, documents and procedures at the schools. However, the process of implementing a new plan is helping officials close loopholes and create consistency within its efforts, Whiston said.

“Over the years we have consistently worked at, and improved, our communications with parents,” he said. “This plan will help us in directing those efforts on a district wide level, deliver a more consistent model for communicating with our parents, and provide us with data that will help us to continually adjust and improve our communication strategies.”

OCR Assistant Secretary Russlynn Ali said the challenges the district hopes to minimize in the face of far-flung diversity are formidable.

“Like many districts throughout the country with diverse populations, Dearborn faces a real challenge of ensuring meaningful communication with parents of limited English proficiency, while also ensuring equal access for all English language learner students to the programs, services and activities provided by their schools,” said Ali. “We appreciate the district’s cooperation with OCR to identify the steps necessary to address these challenges for its LEP parents and ESL students.”