Lost in (non)translation: ELC files a complaint on behalf of an immigrant family

Folks who work with immigrant and refugee families may be interested in a complaint filed by the Education Law Center this month with the federal Office for Civil Rights.  A high school in northern PA accused a student of misconduct, then urged his non-English-speaking parents to sign a "waiver of expulsion hearing" form.  The form was written in extremely complicated legalese and was entirely in English.  School staff did not translate the form, but told the parents (also in English) that it meant that their son would go to an alternative school for a year, after which he could return to the regular program.  In reality, as the family found out later, the form said that they were giving up their son's right to a hearing and agreeing to his permanent expulsion from the school district.

 

It's been settled for quite awhile that schools must communicate with families concerning school matters (and what could be a more important school matter than the decision to expel a child from school forever?) in their native languages.  In fact, PDE's own directive on the subject says clearly, "Communication with parents must be in the parent’s preferred language and mode of communication."  But because PDE doesn't ever monitor schools to see whether this is actually happening, events such as those described in the complaint can, and do, take place.  We at ELC believe PDE should be doing much more to protect the rights of non-English-speaking families, but we also want to help when we can -- so if you run into similar situations, feel free to contact us.