Seattle Public Schools supports staff, students, and families by providing interpretation and translation services for the major languages spoken in our schools. The Bilingual Student Services Department coordinates the translation of key district and school documents, and the Bilingual Family Center arranges interpreters for school meetings and can help translate school documents. Key languages supported include Chinese, Cambodian, Lao, Oromo, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrigna, and Vietnamese.

Many of our schools have bilingual teachers and instructional assistants. We assign bilingual instructional assistants to a school based on the number of students at the school who would benefit from bilingual support. Bilingual instructional assistants work closely with students, guiding them in their own language to help them understand classroom and homework instructions until they gain proficiency in English. They also contact families to keep them informed of school events and how their children are doing in school.

Updated 02/18/2005

To find lists of school documents and forms translated into  Chinese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese, see the Bilingual Family Center web site and click the language buttons there. Resources for other languages are planned for the future.