BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2253
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Date of Hearing: April 30, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ACCOUNTABILITY AND ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW
Jim Frazier, Chair
AB 2253 (Ting) - As Amended: April 10, 2014
SUBJECT : Bilingual services: implementation plans.
SUMMARY : Requires state agencies that serve a substantial
number of non-English speakers, as defined, under the
Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act (Dymally-Alatorre) to
provide translated forms and processes for submitting complaints
about language access. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires agencies to post translated complaint forms and
information about filing complaints on the homepages of their
websites and have them available at their offices.
2)Clarifies that requirements of Dymally-Alatorre apply to
statewide offices.
3)Requires the Department of Human Resources (CalHR) to issue
orders to agencies when it determines that the agencies have
not made reasonable progress toward complying with
Dymally-Alatorre.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Aims to ensure people are not precluded from accessing public
services because of language barriers.
2)Requires state agencies to conduct language surveys every
other year to assess the language needs of people served.
3)Specifies that agencies must provide the same information that
is available in English in other languages if the agencies
serve a "substantial number" of non-English speakers.
4)Defines "substantial number" as non-English speakers
comprising 5% or more of contacts encountered by agencies when
doing the language survey required above.
5)Charges CalHR with ensuring agencies comply with
Dymally-Alatorre and provides that CalHR may issue orders to
agencies if they have not made reasonable progress towards
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complying with language access requirements.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Dymally-Alatorre became law in 1973 with the
Legislative intent of ensuring people are not precluded from
accessing public services because of language barriers. It
requires agencies to provide the same information that is
available in English in other languages if the agency services a
"substantial number" of non-English speakers. To determine
which languages must be included under the defined threshold,
agencies are required to conduct surveys every other year to
assess their contact with non-English speakers. Then, they must
create or update implementation plans to ensure compliance and
submit them to CalHR.
Dymally-Alatorre requires agencies to report, among other
things, their procedures for accepting and resolving language
access complaints. According to a recent Statewide Language
Survey and Implementation Plan Report, 92 percent of agencies
have procedures in place to capture language access complaints.
While agencies post information in their offices about how to
complain about language access issues and CalHR has a toll-free
number to accept language-access complaints, a review of some
agency websites showed great variation in information about
complaints. Some had specific online complaint forms about
Dymally-Alatorre non-compliance while others had no references
to the law or easily-found information on how to complain about
language barriers.
When language barrier complaint forms or complaint information
was present online, it was usually available only in English.
Though, some forms were available in Spanish and some agencies
have functions on their websites that translate content into
various languages.
According to the author, this bill's requirement to post
translated language-access complaint forms on agencies' home
pages and making them available in state offices would empower
non-English speakers to communicate with their government more
effectively.
Providing this depth of access will likely increase the number
of language-access complaints, which could lead agencies to
better meet the needs of the people they are charged with
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serving.
This bill also clarifies that Dymally-Alatorre requirements
apply to agencies' statewide offices. Language in current law
applies these requirements to local offices. CalHR does not
believe that this clarification will impact agencies since they
already apply Dymally-Alatorre requirements to local and
statewide offices that have contact with the public.
CalHR adds that the provision in this bill that requires instead
of allows CalHR to issue orders to agencies when it determines
that the agencies have not made reasonable progress toward
complying with Dymally-Alatorre will likely not have a major
impact since CalHR already works with departments to address
identified deficiencies.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Healthy Nail Salon Cooperative (sponsor)
American Civil Liberties Union of California
Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles
Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum
Asian Health Services
Brest Cancer Action
California Labor Federation
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
Chinese for Affirmative Action
Clean Water Action
Marin Asian Advocacy Project
Worksafe
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Scott Herbstman / A. & A.R. / (916)
319-3600