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Why you may need help

Having the right Language Assistance Program can help you meet your customer service needs and limited English proficiency obligations if you manage a federally-assisted program or activity.  This is key to delivering services well and ensuring against disparate treatment of non-English speakers. You will manage risk by avoiding civil rights complaints and penalties.

Organizations often don’t have time to gather figures and facts and conduct the required in-depth analyses to do a Language Needs Assessment and develop the Language Access Plan. That's why they call on the experience and know-how of Gary E. Hanes & Associates, LLC.

More on Language Assistance Programs

America is becoming more diverse.  There is an increasing number of people that do not speak, read or write English very well--they are limited English proficient (LEP). This presents challenges that managers of federally-assisted housing and other programs must meet and it creates opportunities to increase access to these programs.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act requires that federally-assisted programs and services be delivered free of discrimination based on national origin along with the other protected classes.  This means that important information must be provided without cost in a competent and timely way and in the language of the LEP person.

All programs that receive federal assistance must address limited English proficiency.  This includes: 

• State and local agencies
• Private and nonprofit entities
• Subrecipients
• Specifically:  Assisted housing providers

Each federal agency provides guidance on how to develop a Language Assistance Program.  A Language Assistance Program includes a written Language Needs Assessment and a Language Access Plan. 

The Language Needs Assessment has four parts: 

• The number or proportion of LEP persons eligible to be served or likely to be encountered by the program or grantee;
• The frequency with which LEP persons come in contact with the program;
• The nature and importance of the program, activity, or service provided by the program to people’s lives; and
• The resources available to the grantee/recipient and costs.

The Language Access Plan will cover policies and procedures that address: 

• Identifying LEP Individuals Who Need Language Assistance
• Language Assistance Measures (interpretation and translation)
• Staff Training
• Notice to LEP Persons
• Monitoring and Updating the Language Access Plan 

There are cross-cutting considerations that may also affect your federally-assisted program and influence steps you must take for dealing with limited English proficiency.  These include:

• Affirmative marketing
• Davis-Bacon prevailing wage monitoring activities
  
• Americans with Disability Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
• Environmental Justice

Links to more helpful information

Federal Agency LEP Guidelines

Executive Order 13166