Per the SCSD ENL Program Guidebook “Nationality Workers provide a variety of services to facilitate communication between students, parents, and school personnel. The intent is to bridge the cultural and linguistic gaps between the home and the school. They are liaisons who assist school personnel to communicate effectively with refugee families, or any ELL family to address areas of concern.”
 
Nationality Workers can support the home-school connection in the following ways:

• Set up meetings between families and school personnel at school or at home
• Attend meetings to interpret between school personnel, students and families
• Attend home visits to interpret between school personnel, students and families
• Interpret during phone conferences between school personnel, students and families
• Interpret at school events in which families will be in attendance
• Assist in interpretation during initial student registration
• Promote the attendance of families within their community at school events
• Provide professional development specific to their culture and experiences

The role of the Nationality Worker is to facilitate communication between the school and the home through interpretation. For successful interpretation to occur, parties from both the school and the home must be present with the Nationality Worker.
 
Nationality Workers provide interpretation during the initial registration and enrollment process at Central Registration Center. Assistance of a Nationality Worker at Central Registration Center is by appointment only, and includes the following support:

• Interpret during individual interview
• Interpret during Multi-Lingual Literacy Screener Oral Language Interview
• Interpret for families with school-related concerns regarding enrollment and registration

In the event that Nationality Workers are unable to provide interpretation services, interpretation service is contracted with a local provider. Similarly to the role of the Nationality Workers, the role of the interpreter is to facilitate communication between the school and the home by interpreting between English and another language.

Both Nationality Workers and interpreters provide oral interpretation only, and do not provide written translation of documents.
 
How to Request an Interpreter:

1. Click this link to access the Language Interpretation Request Form, or type bit.ly/SCSDinterpreterrequest into a browser.
2. Fill out the form completely and specifically, including all information requested in each box. If you are submitting a request for more than one interpreter, please complete one form per language needed. If the form is filled out incompletely, you will be contacted for completion before the request can be accommodated.
3. Before submitting the form, ensure that the phone number provided can reach the individual, the student and/or family currently lives at the listed address, and the individual does not speak English.
4. Once submitted, the form will be processed and an interpreter will be assigned to the case. You will be contacted by e-mail to confirm the assignment. Please keep in mind that the turnaround on an average interpreter request is up to one week.