1003 - Bilingual Services (Historical View)

Status: Active

Change Notes

Updated resources.

Category

Equal Employment Opportunity

Audience List

• Department Directors
• Language Survey Coordinators

Synopsis

This policy describes state agencies’ responsibilities under the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act (Act) and specifies requirements for compliance:

• The State requires its agencies to provide services in foreign languages when specific conditions are met.
• Public contact staff certified as bilingual in target languages and documents translated into target languages are the two primary means to provide services in foreign languages. The law also provides for additional or alternative tools.
• Agencies conduct surveys to gather required data every even-numbered year
• Data and policies relating to non-English public contacts are reported to CalHR by October 1st every even-numbered year unless agencies meet exemption requirements. Further follow-up is required for non-compliant agencies.
• Agencies subject to the Act are required to provide on their website home page a language access complaint form and instructions in all languages meeting threshold.

Introduction

The Act was passed in 1973 to "provide for effective communication between all levels of government in this state and the people of this state who are precluded from utilizing public services because of language barriers.” Toward this end, the Act requires agencies to provide information and services in the languages of limited-English-proficient groups that constitute a substantial number, defined as 5% of the total contacts of any of the agencies’ offices or facilities. Agencies are required to conduct a biennial language survey, identify their bilingual program processes and procedures, and report their findings to the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) by October 1 of every even-numbered year. If an agency’s language survey identifies any deficiencies in meeting the requirements of the Act, the agency must develop an implementation plan to correct these deficiencies and provide it to CalHR by October 1 of the following odd-numbered year. CalHR compiles the information collected from the language surveys and implementation plans in a report for the Legislature. Agencies that remain deficient must continue to follow up with CalHR at six-month intervals.

Statement

The State of California requires that each of its offices provide services, equivalent to those available in English, in any non-English language spoken by four-and-a-half percent or more of the public with limited English proficiency served by that office. These services are routinely provided by employing qualified bilingual employees whose fluency in the target language has been certified. Contracting for telephone-based interpreter service is encouraged as a means of meeting language needs for limited English proficient communities that do not constitute a substantial portion of offices’ public contacts. Public contact employees who speak a non-English language ten percent or more of their work week are eligible for the bilingual pay differential.

When four-and-one-half percent or more of the public to which an office provides services speaks a particular non-English language and has limited English proficiency, the agency must translate all written materials distributed to the public by that office into that non-English language and must distribute them through all offices providing the same services; however, the agency may as an alternative provide translation aids or on-demand translations by qualified bilingual staff in excess of the number required to provide English-equivalent services.

Each agency not meeting exemption requirements (described in the “Application” section following) must conduct a language survey over the course of ten days during even numbered years. Agencies with outstanding deficiencies at conclusion of the language survey must file an implementation plan during the subsequent odd-numbered year. If deficiencies remain following the implementation plan phase, agencies must follow up with CalHR at 6-month intervals. If agency plans are not sufficient to achieve compliance, CalHR is required to issue orders that that will bring about compliance.

Each state agency must make Language Access Complaint instructions and forms available on the home page of its website and in all its offices. These forms and processes must be available in all languages spoken by 4.5% or more of the limited-English-proficient public served by any of the agency’s offices

CalHR also maintains a Language Access Complaint line at 1-866-889-3278. If limited-English-proficient persons are not provided services in their native language at any state office, they may record a complaint at this number, with instructions provided in Armenian, Arabic, Cantonese, Farsi, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and English. CalHR will then contact the complainant with an interpreter and arrange for service provision from the appropriate agency.

Each state agency subject to the act must conduct a language survey, due October 1 in even-numbered years. Each state agency whose survey shows outstanding deficiencies following the Language Survey must complete an Implementation Plan, due October 1 in odd-numbered years. Agencies that have not resolved compliance deficiencies by the culmination of the Implementation Plan must follow up with CalHR at six month intervals until all deficiencies are resolved.

Application

Each agency subject to the Act must appoint a Language Survey Coordinator to oversee conducting of the agency’s language survey, which occurs over the course of ten days selected by the agency, which need not be consecutive, and to direct resolution of any identified deficiencies. (Large agencies and those with delegated testing authority may have a dedicated Bilingual Services Coordinator distinct from the Language Survey Coordinator.) All agency public contact employees must identify the languages spoken by all public contacts during the ten days designated for the survey. Agencies must conduct the survey using form CalHR-783 except those agencies with internal populations or live-in clients, which must additionally use form CalHR-784.

Language Survey data must be entered into CalHR’s Language Survey and Implementation Plan (LSIP) online system. Each agency should have one Master User with authority to finalize the submission, and any number of Reporting Assistants with authority to enter data for units within a particular reporting group. Training materials are available via the LSIP system page, and CalHR’s Bilingual Services Program can be reached via the program email box for technical questions (see references below). Form CalHR-775, the Bilingual Services Implementation Plan Transmittal Form, is to be submitted concurrently with the Implementation Plan.

Agencies may request an exemption via form CalHR-776 if either of the following is true:

• The agency's primary mission does not include responsibility for furnishing information or rendering services to the public.
• The agency has consistently received such limited public contact with the non-English speaking public that it has not been required to employ bilingual staff under Government Code section 7292, and the agency employs fewer than the equivalent of 25 full-time employees in public contact positions.

Once the survey has been completed, employee bilingual fluency testing is the primary means for agencies to eliminate bilingual position deficiencies identified during the survey. There are currently three methods of certification.

• Agencies with delegated authority may choose to develop their own bilingual fluency examinations, applying appropriate validation techniques. These agencies must provide CalHR with documentation of employee certification via the ECOS system. Each agency’s HR unit can secure access to the system, and existing business users may request access to register fluency certifications by emailing the program (see references below).
• CalHR recognizes fluency certification status conferred by the Los Angeles Unified School District, which may be contacted directly to schedule testing. Cost of the oral test is $90 as of July, 2016. Remember that when testing is conducted through LA Unified, documentation of certification must still be entered into ECOS. Agencies that do not have current delegated testing authority must forward documentation that staff has passed the test to CalHR for entry into ECOS. Here is contact information to schedule testing, which is conducted by telephone:

Los Angeles Unified School District
Bilingual  Program
213-421-5359
 

• CalHR has limited capacity to provide Spanish fluency testing and to arrange for provision of testing in other languages. Agencies seeking fluency testing from CalHR must submit form CalHR-810 with $115 for test administration and processing. Consolidated Contract service is also available.

California Department of Human Resources
Bilingual Services Program
1515 S St, North Building, Suite 500
Sacramento, CA 95811

CalHR is currently developing guidelines in the translation of written documents and will update this policy with further direction as it becomes available.

Authorities

• Government Code sections 7290 to 7299.8

Resources

FAQs

• Office of Civil Rights: Frequently Asked Questions

Forms

• CalHR 775: Language Survey and Implementation Plan Submittal Verification
• CalHR 776: Language Survey and Implementation Plan Request for Exemption
• CalHR 783: Public Contact Information and Language Survey Tally Sheet

PML

• PML 2014-052: PML 2014-052 - 12/30/2014 - Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act - Amendments

Web Pages

• LSIP: CalHR’s Language Survey and Implementation Plan (LSIP) online system

Authorized By

Glenna Wheeler
Chief, Executive Office

Contact Person

John Hering
Staff Services Manager I, , Equity and Accessibility Management Services Division
Phone: 916-324-9367
Fax: 916-327-2349
Email: john.hering@calhr.ca.gov

Superseded Policies