BILL REQ. #:  H-4533.1 

Read first time 01/28/2004.   Referred to Committee on Education.

     AN ACT Relating to facilitating parental involvement in education for immigrant families; and creating new sections.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that a large and growing academic gap exists between children who come from families in which English is the families' first language and children from immigrant families. The legislature also finds that parental involvement in a child's education is one of the keys to overcoming the achievement gap. Research indicates that parental involvement in education leads to higher student achievement, improved graduation rates, better attendance, and fewer discipline problems. The legislature further finds that having school information and documents available in a family's first language would help that family work in partnership with their children's school.
     The legislature intends to help school districts provide written materials in the languages most commonly understood by large segments of the districts' parents.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   By October 31, 2005, the superintendent of public instruction shall report to the governor and the legislative education and fiscal committees on the feasibility of having the state provide direct support to school districts for school information provided to parents and community members in the languages most commonly understood by large segments of the districts' immigrant parents. In preparing the report, the superintendent of public instruction shall work in cooperation with the Washington state school directors association, organizations concerned with the language barriers faced by immigrant parents, and other interested organizations, and shall consider the following:
     (1) The number of languages that are understood by large segments of immigrant parents throughout the state, in each first class district, and in each educational service district;
     (2) A recommended percentage of parents that could be used to create a threshold over which school information and documents should be made available in an immigrant family's first language;
     (3) A set of strategies and best practices that districts might use to communicate with immigrant families, including strategies to communicate in the families' first languages;
     (4) The types of school information and documents that should be made available in an immigrant family's first language;
     (5) The cost to school districts of providing school information in the languages most commonly understood by immigrant parents. The funding information should include an estimate of current expenditures and an estimate of any additional expenditures that might be required to expand the number of languages or the amount of translated material provided to immigrant parents.