Immigrant Advocates Demand More Translators in Public Schools

By GABRIELA LIRA-PIZANO

Immigration advocates on Tuesday criticized what they regard as inadequate translation services in the New York City school system, alleging that a mere two staffers of the Department of Education oversaw translation services for 1700 public schools.

The new York Immigration Coalition urged immigrant parents of public school children to demand more translation and interpretation services

New York Immigration Coalition leader Steven Choi said that more than 500,000 families in the public schools aren’t fluent in English or don’t speak English at all.

The group requested more funding in public schools for such services in at least the top nine languages- Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Urdu.

“We need to do a better job,” insisted Choi “ One of the ways we can do a better job is by engaging parents to figure out a way to break down the barriers to make sure the parents are fully engaged.”

Another advocate, Kim Sykes highlighted the challenges immigrant parents face when trying to engage in their children’ education.

“They want to understand what program options are available for their children to learn English,” she said. “They want to understand what the common core is, how to help their children succeed and in order to know, they have to be able to communicate in a language they understand.”

Samsun Nahar, a parent who speaks Bengali, said that when she attends to school meetings, she never is provided with an interpreter, which obstructs her involvement to her child’s academic development.

Aracelis Lucero, another immigrant advocate, said that an immigrant mother told her that she asked for an Spanish translator when attending a meeting for her daughter because she had drastically dropped her math grades, but a teacher told her to ask another parent to translate. The mother said she was reluctant to reveal a personal issue to another parent.