What We Know

In the United States, where 1 in 5 individuals now speak a language other than English at home, schools encounter significant language barriers15. Unfortunately, most statistics don’t account for limited English proficiency among parents and guardians. Communicating with parents in their preferred language is critical to their full understanding and participation in their children’s education. This challenge is similar to what multilingual families face in healthcare and there is much to learn and replicate from successful bilingual navigator programs in healthcare systems. The Bilingual Patient Navigator Program at Seattle Children’s Hospital, hired bilingual patient navigators who were part of the Spanish-speaking and Somali-speaking communities in the city, they shared the culture and language of the patients and the families they assisted. An evaluation study after 2 years of this program showed that there were significant improvements: a drop of no-show rates for navigated patients that resulted in savings of about US $35,000, and a decrease in the average length of stay from almost 15 days to 6.5 days. This shows that supporting bilingual families in navigating complex systems can help the patients better build trust with the medical staff, understand their options within the system, restate medical jargon into plain language, unravel mistaken inferences, and to point out barriers to their treatment plan.

What We Heard

From conversations with families, it’s clear that parents are encountering major language barriers as they try to understand their child’s educational experience. The Blueprint Design team that surfaced this issue was completely facilitated in Spanish with Latinx families, they raised numerous concerns about the significant language barriers currently in place at schools. Each participant shared experiences of not being able to contact a teacher, access academic reports, or adequately sign up for school events or support due to materials only being written in English. The group emphasized that school districts have a long way to go and need to commit a significant investment to ensure all families in Birmingham, regardless of ethnicity or country of origin, receive timely and accurate information in their home language.

A digital survey administered by the Language Access team also collected 136 responses from families about language access, information sharing, and how the education system is currently supporting families. Findings from that survey show that: See infograph