​Access to the IEP Process: Equity and Language at HTH​
 

The Dilemma:
Last week I received a worried phone call from Zac, an Inclusion Specialist at HTMMA. He had just learned that one of his seventh grade students, Patricia, had an IEP in elementary school, but had never been “identified” at HTMMA.  Zac explained that Patricia’s mother dropped off a two-year old IEP at the front desk earlier that morning.  Patricia translated for her mother, who speaks only Spanish.  She asked the office manager if the school would be testing her daughter like her old school used to? 

In the world of Special Education, this is a nearly catastrophic situation, for because the school was not aware of the IEP, Patricia was not receiving the Special Education services to which she is entitled by law.  I worked with Patricia many times last year when she was a sixth grader, and knew her well. She struggled to process information at the pace of her peers, and she struggled with expressive language. Her teachers and I had even discussed the need to assess her, but she was managing pretty well (and receiving a high level of support from the academic coach and teacher), and we ultimately decided not to refer her for Special Education services.

Several days later, I met with Patricia’s mom to initiate a Special Education referral process.  I scrambled to assemble the necessary paperwork in Spanish, and had to print and re-print several times before I was confident that I had the collected the correct and most updated forms. I searched in the office for Psychological Testing protocols in Spanish – none to be found anywhere. I speak Spanish almost fluently, though I am not as fluent as I was when I was younger.  When we met, I explained to Patricia’s mother that the IEP was not “checked” on her daughter’s registration paperwork, and we had never received her container from the previous school. I apologized, and explained that we often rely on parents to share this information with us. It quickly became apparent that Patricia’s mom was very unfamiliar with most of what I was discussing. She wasn’t entirely sure what an IEP was, and she wasn’t aware of Patricia’s identified learning disability. I did my best to educate her, in Spanish, about the IEP process. I tried to interpret the previous IEP, explaining about Patricia’s identified “auditory processing” disorder. Patricia’s mom nodded and smiled, and I’m really not sure whether anything I said was truly making sense. She was polite and gracious, and agreed to return the paperwork shortly so that our psychologists could begin assessing her daughter with the goal of formulating a new, updated IEP.

I’ve been aware for some time now that our non-English speaking families do not access the Special Education process in the same way that our English-speaking families do. Why didn’t Patricia’s mom inform us that her daughter had an IEP when she enrolled her in sixth grade? Why was it so challenging for me to gather the necessary paperwork for her? Why couldn’t I find Psychological Testing Protocols in Spanish? Why was I relying on my Spanish skills to explain such important information to her?  Why didn’t Patricia’s mom ask more questions?  Why wasn’t she upset or angry about the situation?

Conversations with Colleagues
I spoke with two colleagues about this topic, in hopes of better understanding the issue in order to begin brainstorming some solutions.  First I spoke with Zac (the Inclusion Specialist at HTMMA). We started by questioning how it was possible that Patricia had flown “under the radar” for an entire year.  I found myself feeling frustrated with Patricia’s mother for not having communicated with us, but remembered a study referenced in the Aida Walqui piece that I read for class.  The study was conducted in 1985 by researcher Parminder Bhachu, and found that parental support that can be “interventionist” and “noninterventionist.”  Though it was tempting to label Patricia’s mom uncaring or tuned out, I re-directed myself to remember that neither Zac nor I have been to her home, and really we have no concept of the amount of support that is provided there “behind the scenes” in a “noninterventionist” manner.  Nor do know how much access Patricia’s mom was afforded to the IEP process at the previous school, or how that has affected her experience and her understanding about the process.

Zac and I also reflected about a recent IEP meeting with another mother who speaks only Spanish.  The School Director and I “shared” the job of translating at the meeting. Zac and I discussed how, in hindsight, the translation process was quite messy and lacked a formal structure to ensure that each of the mother’s concerns was translated and addressed.  We (the School’s Director and I) wielded an unfair amount of power because we literally controlled the language in the room, deciding what would be translated and sometimes, what would not.
I spoke the next day with Sarah, an Inclusion Specialist at one of our high schools.  The timing of the conversation was fortuitous, because she had just held an IEP for a Spanish-only speaking family the day prior.  She described the context of the meeting: the family is undocumented, and they have previously been leery of participating in IEP meetings.  Sarah commissioned the Director of College Advising (a native Spanish speaker) to translate at the meeting.  Sarah also had all of the paperwork translated in to Spanish prior to the meeting.  She noticed that the family’s participation in the meeting was dramatically different from past meetings.  The parents asked questions for the first time, and even pushed back regarding one of the topics, which was the first time they’d ever challenged the school about their son’s academic program.  Sarah and I discussed how this is a sign that perhaps they felt more empowered and confident than they had in the past.

Lastly, I reached out to a Spanish-only speaking parent to ask her about her experience with the IEP process so far at our schools.  I told her that I was doing some research about how to improve our programs, and I would like some advice and insight about what we could do to give Spanish speaking families better access to information.  She told me that she couldn’t think of anything that could be improved, that she thinks that both of her sons are getting “an amazing education” and she is “so very happy” with the programs.  Though I worked hard when I had her sons at my school, I can say confidently that there was a lot we could have done to provide her with better access to information before, during and after his IEP meetings.  I think that her overwhelmingly positive “review” of her experience may be partly cultural – many of the Latino families I’ve worked with have been very deferential toward teachers and administrators.  Perhaps the mother I spoke with thought that giving honest feedback could be interpreted as rude or disrespectful. 

As a result of my conversations with colleagues and a parent, I identified three issues to address in my PITP regarding the participation of non-English speaking families in the IEP process:
       1. Access to information about the IEP process (including parent rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act).
       2. Access to the written information contained in all IEP documents.
       3. Access to the information shared orally during the IEP meetings themselves. 

Action Taken:

 

Though I see this as a much larger project, I have taken some important first steps aimed at addressing the issues identified above.  I sent an email to all of the Inclusion Specialists at High Tech High Schools, containing links to several important resources:

       1. I created a Google Docs folder (with subfolders divided by topic) containing all of the most commonly used IEP documents in Spanish.  I’ve asked the Inclusion Specialists to, at the very least, always provide Procedural Safeguards in Spanish (Parent Rights under the IDEA). 
       2. I have ordered Psychological Testing protocols in Spanish, and I have informed the Inclusion Specialist that they will be available for distribution as soon as they arrive!
       3. After several phone calls, I managed to track down the head of the Translation Services for Special Education department of San Diego Unified School District.  They provide interpreters/translators who are highly trained in Special Education procedures, and they have agreed to provide these services to our schools!   I have asked all of the Inclusion Specialists to send requests to me when they are in need of translation services at a meeting, and I will work with the District to assign a translator to the meeting.  This department will also provide translation of documents if they are provided three weeks ahead of time, and I have informed teachers of this as well!

​



Reflection:

This topic is complex and nuanced.  I was struck by Sarah’s story about the parent who was previously very quiet in IEP meetings, but when she was provided quality translation (oral and written), she began to participate meaningfully, ask questions, and even push back.  Though it represents just one person’s experience, I think it is impressive evidence about the power of providing access to information.  Though I think the steps I’ve taken so far are small, I am hopeful that they will set in motion some positive momentum for more powerful changes.  I think an important next step is to have more conversations with non-English speaking families, to attempt to elicit honest feedback about how we can provide them better access to the IEP process.



In hindsight, I realized that I was rather naïve approaching a parent who has been very deferential (in my experiences with her), and to expect her to provide me a laundry list of things that I could improve.  I think that I tend to be very solution-oriented in my thinking, and sometimes fail to pause and step back, and be more thoughtful in my planning.  I think I could have gone about eliciting her ideas more effectively, but because I was feeling tunnel-versioned about “solving” the problem, and didn’t recognize that my approach was flawed.  I am working in general in my practice on stopping, stepping-back, and trying to see the “forest” before proceeding forward with a plan.







Artifacts:

1.  Click here to see Google Docs Folder of D/M IEP Forms in Spanish

​2.  Email sent to All Inclusion Specialists: