Best Practices: Limited English Proficiency

Joe Hunnings

Director, Planning and Reporting, Professional Development and Civil Rights Compliance

Virginia Cooperative Extension &

Virginia Agriculture Experiment Station

College Of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech

One State’s Experiences In Trying to Understand and Comply with our LEP

Responsibilities

What is LEP?

• Persons who do not speak English as their primary language and who have a limited ability to read, write, speak, or understand English are limited English proficient or ‘‘LEP’’........ and are entitled to language assistance with respect to a particular type of benefit, service, or encounter.

Why and How does this Apply to Us?

• USDA regulations require all recipients of Federal financial assistance from USDA to provide meaningful access to LEP persons.

• Sub-recipients likewise are covered when Federal funds are passed through from a recipient to a sub-recipient.

• Coverage extends to a recipient’s entire program or activity, i.e., to all parts of a recipient’s operations.

How Did This Come About?

Section 601 of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Section 2000d, ….. states that no person in the United States shall on the grounds of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

Executive Order 13166

• In 2000, President Clinton signed Executive Order 13166, "Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency.”

• The Executive Order requires Federal agencies to examine the services they provide, identify any need for services to those with limited English proficiency (LEP), and develop and implement a system to provide those services so LEP persons can have meaningful access to them.

How Do We know What LEP Services We are Expected to Provide?

• Four Factor Test (1) The number or proportion of LEP persons eligible to be served or likely to be encountered within the area serviced by the recipient; (2) The frequency with which LEP persons come in contact with the program or activity; (3) The nature and importance of the program, activity, or service to people’s lives; and (4) The resources available to the recipient and costs.

FACTOR 1: Number or proportion of LEP persons eligible to be served

• The greater the number or proportion of LEP persons from a particular language group within the eligible service population, the more likely language services are needed.

• The eligible service population is program/activity-specific, and includes persons who are in the recipient’s geographic service area.

Source of LEP Numbers and Proportions

U.S. Census / American FactFinder/ American Community Survey • Provides 5-year estimates for LEP populations will be

available in 2010 which will provide information for all areas. So, beginning in 2010, for all geographies, data will be produced every year versus every 10 years.

• http://factfinder.census.gov

Use the US Census FactFinder Advanced Search

We’ll be Selecting Metrics from the Topics and Geographies Folders

Select Topics/People/Language/ Languages Spoken at Home

Select Geographies/County/State/ All counties within

These are the Two Datasets you Need

• Download each one at a time as a CSV file • Save as an MS Excel file

Language Spoken at Home Survey

• From the 2009-2013 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

• Provides % of people that speak English less than very well for the overall population and in broad language groups

Example of Data Provided to Units on Overall LEP Population

Language Spoken at Home by Ability to Speak English for the Population 5

Years and Older

• From the 2009-2013 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

• Provides population estimate of those persons by language that speak English less than “very well”

• You have to calculate the percentages

Also Provided Units with LEP Populations by Language

FACTOR 2: The frequency with which LEP persons come in contact with the

program or activity

• The more frequent the contact with a particular language group, the more likely that enhanced language services in that language are needed.

• Less frequent contact with different language groups may suggest a different and less intensified solution.

Frequency of LEP Contacts

FACTOR 3: The nature and importance of the program, activity, or service

to people’s lives • The more important the information, service, or

benefit provided in a program or activity, or the greater the possible consequences of the contact to LEP persons, the more likely language services are needed.

• Situations in which health, safety, or access to sustenance or important benefits and services are at stake, or when credibility and accuracy are important to protect an LEP person’s rights or access to important benefits and services

VCE Focused Efforts

• Food Safety

• Pesticide Safety

• Nutrition (SNAP-Ed; EFNEP)

• 4-H recruitment & enrollment

• More Recently

– Home Horticulture

– Bed bugs

– Child development

FACTOR 4: The resources available to the recipient and costs.

• A recipient’s level of resources and the costs

that would be imposed on it may have an impact on the nature of the steps it should take.

• Resource and cost issues, however, can often be reduced by technological advances; training bilingual staff; sharing services between recipients; or through formalized use of qualified community volunteers

Mix of Language Services

• Oral Interpretation - on-site interpreters to access through commercially available telephonic interpretation services.

• Written translation, likewise, can range from translation of an entire document to translation of a short description of the document.

• The correct mix should be based on what is both necessary and reasonable in light of the four-factor analysis.

• Useful info on selecting language assistance services in Federal Register USDA doc

Implementation Plan on Language Assistance for LEP Persons

• Should document language services that will be or are provided and how staff and LEP persons can access those services

• Plan not required, but strongly suggested

• Plan documents compliance and provides framework for policies/guidelines, training, administration, planning and budgeting

VCE LEP Plan

Six Steps for Designing LEP Plan

1. ID LEP persons eligible to be served or encountered and frequency of encounters

• “I Speak” cards

Unit Survey of LEP Contacts

• A significant number of units are experiencing contact with LEP persons (43% of units that participated in the survey).

• FCS agents followed by ANR agents have the greatest needs.

• Publications in Spanish are in the greatest demand. • Associate Directors should review the lists of pubs that

agents have suggested are needed and first see if acceptable Spanish versions already exist.

• Non-existing publications in Spanish should be prioritized and scheduled for translate and printing each year.

• A compilation of pubs in Spanish should be posted on the intranet

Spanish Language Resources

Spanish Language Forms and Indicia

Educational Programs in Spanish

Spanish Language Training of VCE Faculty and Staff

Other Ways VCE has Provided Language Services

• Utilizing existing staff and interns with language skills

• Hiring PAs/Faculty and Staff with second language skills

• Paying for interpretations services

• District Offices purchasing language interpretation equipment

• Translating two pubs/program area/year

Six Steps for Designing LEP Plan

3. Training Staff • Obligations, policies, and procedures

4. Providing Notice to LEP persons in common language(s) encountered through:

• Postings (signs) in Intake areas and web sites

• Outreach documents

• Organizations and stakeholders

• Telephone voice mail menu

• Media

Six Steps for Designing LEP Plan

5. Ensuring Online Automation Services • Communications and Service (applications, forms,

brochures, etc.)

6. Monitoring and Updating Plan • Changes in programs, services, activities, etc.

• Changes in LEP demographics

• Changes in LEP encounters

• Availability of resources, incl. advances in technology

• Evaluation of efforts in training, services, meeting needs

Voluntary Compliance

• USDA recognizes that a comprehensive system to serve LEP persons is a process

• USDA looks favorably on intermediate steps that move their service delivery system toward providing full access to LEP persons

• Address first those programs/activities critical for obtaining federal services and/or benefits

• Document efforts

Sources & Resources

• LEP.gov – Federal Interagency Website

• Final LEP Guidance for USDA Recipients http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-11-28/pdf/2014-27960.pdf

• Migration Policy Institute http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/limited-english-proficient-population-united-states/