Translation Services Offer NYC Schools a Communication Bridge

Last Updated On: November 11, 2022 by The Migration Translators

When people migrate to a country like the U.S. not all of their family are necessarily competent enough to communicate effectively in English. This makes it very difficult when a non-English speaking parent has to handle issues relating to their children in public schools. Organisations representing minority language communities in New York City who have been asking New York City’s Department of Education (DOE) to expand the interpretation and translation services for parents to use in public school interactions have finally won.

The DOE’s efforts to expand access to language resources to bridge the gap between parents and school staff has led to 9 new full-time jobs employed in the Borough Field Support Centres and Affinity Groups who are being given the job of accessing each New York City’s school needs when it comes to providing good accessible interpretation and translation services by NAATI certified translators.

This expansion means there will be more phone interpreters on standby to talk to parents after 5 p.m. directly without the need to connect first through the Translation and Interpretation Unit and have the call forwarded to a suitable interpreter. There will be interpreters on hand who can speak a total of 200 languages.

The DOE says it is important that parents can connect with people who can speak their language and convey their concerns to the right people in their child’s school as quickly as possible. The DOE has said it is dedicated to ensuring that parents and the students of their schools will be able to access the services of professionals who are both culturally sensitive as well as having a full understanding of the language that a parent wishes to communicate in.

There are many issues in schools that parents from other cultures and languages may not fully understand when they first come to live in New York City. The same happens in other countries that have large immigrant populations such as Australia that offer translation services in Australia to parents and spouses of immigrants who do not fully understand English when they first arrive in the country. As well as interpreter services they will also need a translation by a NAATI-certified translator for official documents and their children’s school records when they first arrive in the country and find a school place for each of their children.