Report 2010-106 Recommendation 1 Responses

Report 2010-106: Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act: State Agencies Do Not Fully Comply With the Act, and Local Governments Could Do More to Address Their Clients' Needs (Release Date: November 2010)

Recommendation #1 To: Food and Agriculture, Department of

To ensure that they meet their constituents' language needs, state agencies should make certain that they accurately assess and report their clients' language needs to the State Personnel Board. State agencies should also analyze formally their language survey results and consider other available bilingual resources to determine their true staffing deficiencies. Further, state agencies should establish procedures to identify the written materials that the Act requires them to translate into other languages and ensure that such materials are translated or made accessible to the agencies' LEP clients. Finally, state agencies should develop detailed corrective action plans describing how and when they will address their staffing and written materials deficiencies. In addition, they should submit their corrective action plans to the State Personnel Board as part of the state agencies' overall implementation plans.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2012

CDFA has fully implemented all of the Bureau of State Audits' (BSA) recommendations in its report titled “Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act (Act): State Agencies Do Not Fully Comply and Local Governments Could Do More to Address Their Client's Needs.” The following efforts demonstrate CDFA's implementation of BSA's first recommendation:

• On August 8, 2012, CDFA's Bilingual Services Program (BSP) Coordinator conducted a language survey training for CDFA's reporting assistants. The training covered the Act, the agency's responsibilities under the Act, the survey participants' roles and responsibilities, and instructions on how to conduct the survey.

• From August 8, 2012 to September 28, 2012, the BSP Coordinator provided leadership and guidance in accomplishing the following tasks:

o Two-week statewide language survey;

o Data entry of survey results;

o Quality control of data submitted;

o Analysis of deficiency results, other available bilingual resources, and results of the written documents survey.

• CDFA will continue to utilize qualified bilingual staff and a telephone-based translation/ interpretation service.

• On September 21, 2012, the BSP Coordinator analyzed results of the written documents survey, which CDFA conducted concurrently with the two-week statewide language survey. Through the survey, the BSP Coordinator identified the written materials that the Act requires to translate into other languages and will make the written materials accessible to the agency's clients.

• On October 1, 2012, the BSP Coordinator submitted CDFA's 2012 Language Survey results to the Civil Rights Office of the California Department of Human Resources. The Language Survey package contained a position deficiency analysis, identification of written materials, and CDFA's BSP policy.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2010-106

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.