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Parents Face Language Barriers With Their Children's Schools

a photo of a school bus
PEXELS

A growing number of Ohio children live in homes with parents who speak little English. And a national education advocacy group says the state isn’t doing enough to communicate with those parents about their children’s schools.

 

The nonprofit Data Quality Campaign annually reviews state school report cards in its “Show Me the Data” report. The 2017 report, released Wednesday, says Ohio does not translate school report cards into any other language, even though national data shows 100,000 children in the state live in homes where parents have difficulty speaking the language. Paige Kowalski is DQC’s executive vice president.

 

 

"We know that every state has a population that speaks a language other than English but only nine states offer  report cards in a second language.”

Kowalski says language is one of the biggest barriers parents face when trying to access school information across the country.