School Preparedness: Language Access Vital to Containing Spread of Swine Flu

Portland, Oregon – K12Translate, a division of viaLanguage, is working with weWashington State and California school districts to translate information concerning the H1N1 virus or Swine Flu. All public school systems nationwide are required by federal law to maintain a pandemic response plan. Among other things, they can send fact sheets home with students early in the spread of a virus to ensure families have vital information and instructions. Given the potential for panic with words such as pandemic, it is vital that this information be translated with unquestioned accuracy.

As the U.S. immigrant population continues to rise, having this information available in languages other than English is more important than ever. K12Translate plays a key role in helping schools produce accurate translations. “The potential for a pandemic poses a challenge for school officials, who must balance their role in monitoring the spread of the virus with their responsibility to keep students safe,” said Chanin Ballance, CEO of viaLanguage. “Responding to any emergency or disaster and ensuring that correctly translated information is provided quickly is what K12Translate is trained to do.”

School districts are requesting informative translations into several languages such as Spanish, Tagalog, Russian and Vietnamese. In San Mateo County California, Jefferson Union High School District worked with K12Translate to translate their parent notification letter into Tagalog for their Filipino families. “School officials can play a key role in stemming the spread of swine flu,” said Richard Boitano, Associate Superintendent for Jefferson Union High School District. “Our top priority is communicating information and instructions to ensure the safety of our families and staff and this includes making certain our limited families whose primary language is not English are receiving this information in their own language.”

About K12Translate
K12Translate is a leading provider of online language translation and localization services for K12 Education. Through the unique combination of its Online Language System (OLS), expert linguists and integration capabilities, K12Translate offers school districts a comprehensive, affordable solution for meeting today’s increasing need for effective multilingual communications. K12Translate services are designed to help clients quickly and easily develop the very best multilingual K12 outreach materials including parent notices, student handbooks, Title I, Title III and NCLB compliance information. As a divisions of viaLanguage, since 2000, the company has earned a reputation among its clients for reliability, quality and professionalism. Clients include over 100 school districts such as Kent, Fort Wayne, Red Clay, Brevard County Public Schools, District of Columbia Public Schools and several Departments of Education. Corporate Headquarters are located at 700 SW Taylor Street, Suite 310 Portland, OR 97205-3016. For more information, visit www.K12Translate.com or call us at 503-243-2007.

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