Accessibility for Persons in Child Welfare Matters
The bill requires a court to provide language access, including translation and interpretation services, to a child, parent, guardian, custodian, or other party in a dependency and neglect case if the person has limited English proficiency.
The bill requires that during a dispositional hearing concerning the best interests of a child, reasonable efforts must be made to ensure meaningful access to services in the person's primary language for a person with limited English proficiency in a timely manner and without unreasonable delay.
The bill requires the department of human services (department) to develop and implement a language access plan to address the rights and needs of persons with limited English proficiency. The department is also required to develop a resource bank of common documents that are in plain language, translated into non-English languages, and are made accessible to counties, cities and counties, or private-entity contractors.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)