Parents with Limited English Can Get Lost Without Translations of Special Ed Plans. NYC Is Trying to Fix That.
January 9, 2019
By: Alex Zimmerman, Christina Veiga
Source: Chalkbeat
When Adriana Maya transferred her son into a public school that specializes in serving students with disabilities this fall, she requested that his learning plan be translated into Spanish, her native language.
But the school didn’t have anyone on hand to translate, and she said officials told her it would take time. In the meantime, Maya said her advocacy for her son has been hampered without the translated plan and has caused confusion around his use of an iPad in class. She’s been waiting since October.
“The IEP is not in Spanish, so it’s hard for me to say, ‘Here’s where it says that.’ Because without a translation I don’t even know what it says,” she said in Spanish.