Report 2010-106 Recommendation 13 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 #13 To: Justice, 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.

1-Year Agency Response

The Department of Justice (Justice) reported that it appointed a new bilingual services program coordinator to monitor the program, the biennial language survey, and the subsequent implementation plan. Justice also indicated that it has adopted and implemented new procedures that provide a higher level of quality control regarding reviewing and analyzing the language survey data in order to avoid future reporting errors. Justice also participated in the 2010 language survey and submitted an implementation plan to the Personnel Board in 2011. In addition, Justice formally analyzed its language survey results and determined that it had no true staffing deficiencies. Justice also established procedures for identifying written materials that require translation and its implementation plan included a corrective action plan describing how it will address its deficiencies in written materials. Finally, Justice also provides an option on its Web site that allows LEP clients to translate its Web site content into numerous other languages. (See 2012-406 p.68)

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2010-106

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.