Parent Language Rights

Chancellor’s Regulation A-663 establishes procedures for ensuring that Limited English Proficiency  (LEP) parents are provided with a meaningful opportunity to participate in and have access to programs and services critical to their child’s education. (The term “parent” means the student’s parent[s] or guardian[s], or any person[s] in a parental or custodial relationship to the student). Chancellor’s Regulation A-663 requires language services in the nine most common languages other than English spoken by parents of New York City school children. Based on the DOE’s Home Language Identification Survey these languages are Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Urdu (hereinafter referred to as the “covered languages”). These languages, including English, account for over 95% of student households. Support in additional languages is available through contracted vendors.

The regulation sets forth requirements for:

• Translating documents containing critical information regarding a student’s education in each of the covered languages.
• Making available translation and interpretation services for parents.
• Collecting data regarding the primary language spoken by the parent of each child enrolled in school and whether such parent requires language assistance to communicate with the DOE.
• Increasing parental awareness regarding their right to and the availability of language services.
• Developing school-based languages access plans.