Next-Generation Strategies to Improve Language Access in Federally Supported Programs

More than 25 million U.S. residents have limited proficiency in English, and as the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated, all levels of government have an important need to deliver services, outreach, and critical health and safety information to individuals and communities who communicate in languages other than English. Providing access to public services and information for individuals who have limited proficiency in English has been a civil rights requirement for federally funded state and local programs for decades. Ensuring these entities meet their language access obligations has become a more pressing concern in recent years due to the size, growth, and dispersal of the country’s immigrant and Limited English Proficient (LEP) populations. Because federal funding reaches so deeply into state and local systems and so widely across the country, language access requirements affect virtually all sectors of government and cover many programs delivered by state and local governments, companies, and community organizations. However, significant gaps in compliance with these requirements by recipients of federal funds mean that language access often remains a goal rather than a reality. During this webinar, speakers discuss research from the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy that details next-generation strategies the federal government can use to support state and local programs in effectively operationalizing and sustaining meaningful language access. Speakers also highlight current challenges in providing language access in federally supported programs and offer recommendations for how to weave language access into existing processes; maximize limited resources; and foster a more coordinated, effective, and efficient federal response to agency and public needs.