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Serving LEP Clients Competently, Ethically, and Uniformly

Jada B. Charley, Attorney/LEP Coordinator. South Carolina Legal Services. Serving LEP Clients Competently, Ethically, and Uniformly. LEP Program-Changes in Need. Between 2000 and 2011 the Hispanic population in SC increased by 147.9%. In Greenville, the population is 8.1% Hispanic.

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Serving LEP Clients Competently, Ethically, and Uniformly

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  1. Jada B. Charley, Attorney/LEP Coordinator South Carolina Legal Services Serving LEP Clients Competently, Ethically, and Uniformly

  2. LEP Program-Changes in Need • Between 2000 and 2011 the Hispanic population in SC increased by 147.9%. • In Greenville, the population is 8.1% Hispanic. • 2.9% of the population, or almost 135,000 South Carolina residents speak English “less than very well” . • 5.4% of the population in Greenville speak English “less than very well • South Carolina currently has the fastest growing Hispanic population in the United States. • Data from 2010 US Census, and 2005-2009 ACS Survey

  3. Background • Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it illegal for programs receiving federal funds to discriminate against someone on the basis of national origin. • National Origin discrimination includes discrimination against people who are limited in their ability to speak, read, or write English. • Executive Order 13166 says that people who are LEP should have meaningful access to federally conducted and federally funded programs and activities.

  4. Background continued • The Office of Civil Rights in 2003 released guidance to assist federally funded programs from engaging in practices that were discriminatory on the basis of national origin. • This guidance specifically dealt with discrimination against Limited English Proficient persons. • Each federal agency provided language access guidance for recipients of its funds (i.e. HUD, DOJ, DOT, EPA, etc.) • This language access guidance can be found on www.lep.gov

  5. What is LEP and Who is a LEP individual? LEP means Limited English Proficient • Individuals who do not speak English as their primary language and who have a limited ability to read, speak, write, or understand English can be limited English proficient, or "LEP." • In planning for your budgets, it is important to include a line item for language services.

  6. How to determine what to do • Most federal guidance requires engagement in a 4 step process for determining what language services need to be provided. • Number or Proportion of LEP individuals • Frequency of Contact with the Program • Nature and Importance of the Program • Resources available

  7. Difference between Bi-lingual Staff and Interpreters and Translators • People who are completely bilingual are fluent in two languages. They are able to conduct the business of the workplace in either of those languages. • One of the primary ways that bilingual staff can be used as part of a broader effort to ensure meaningful access is to have them conduct business with the agencies’ LEP clients directly in the clients’ primary language. • This is sometimes called “monolingual communication in a language other than English.” It does not involve interpretation or the translation between languages. However, it does require fluency in the non-English language, including fluency in agency terminology.

  8. Difference between Bi-lingual Staff and Interpreters and Translators cont. • Many individuals have some proficiency in more than one language, but are not completely bilingual. • They may be able to greet a limited English proficient individual in his or her language, but not conduct agency business, for instance, in that language. • The distinction is critical in order to ensure meaningful communication and appropriate allocation of resources. • As valuable as bilingualism and ability to conduct monolingual communication in a language other than English can be, interpretation and translation require additional specific skills in addition to being fully fluent in two or more languages.

  9. Difference between Bi-lingual Staff and Interpreters and Translators cont. • Interpretation involves the immediate communication of meaning from one language (the source language) into another (the target language). • An interpreter conveys meaning orally. • Command of at least two languages is prerequisite to any interpreting task. • The interpreter must be able to • (1) comprehend two languages as spoken and written (if the language has a script), • (2) speak both of these languages, and • (3) choose an expression in the target language that fully conveys and best matches the meaning of the source language.

  10. Difference between Bi-lingual Staff and Interpreters and Translators cont. • From the standpoint of the user, a successful interpretation is one that faithfully and accurately conveys the meaning of the source language orally, reflecting the style, register, and cultural context of the source message, without omissions, additions or embellishments on the part of the interpreter. • Professional interpreters and translators are subject to specific codes of conduct and should be well-trained in the skills, ethics, and subject-matter language. • Quality of interpretation should be a focus of concern for all recipients.

  11. Difference between Bi-lingual Staff and Interpreters and Translators cont. • A translator conveys meaning from written text to written text. • Translation requires different skill sets and therefore different training and testing from interpretation.

  12. Language Considerations • Your agency may have to provide interpreters for certain things in addition to translating important documents (signage, materials, etc.) • Ex. Courts, emergency management, unemployment, police, etc.

  13. Examples of LEP Issues Arising in Cases • Housing • Failure by Housing Authority to comply with HUD’s LEP guidance • Education • Failure to do special education evaluation in the language “most likely to yield accurate results.” See 20 U.S.C. § 1414(b)(3)(A)(ii). “…evaluations must be provided and administered in the language and form most likely to yield accurate information on what the child knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally, unless not feasible to so provide or administer.”

  14. More Examples • Consumer • Specific fraud taking place in LEP communities (immigration fraud by notarios, contract for deed housing transactions, violations of ECOA). • Tax • Unauthorized worker using valid SS number of LEP person and employer reports wages to IRS resulting in increase in tax liability for LEP person with valid SS number • Public Benefits • DSS refusing food stamp benefits or refusing to accept application for food stamp benefits to applicants with children with valid SS numbers • Family Law • Immigration relief available for victims of DV

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