Administration of government; language access equity, report. (SB270)

Introduced By

Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Midlothian) with support from co-patrons Del. Irene Shin (D-Herndon), and Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond)

Description

Administration of government; language access equity; report. Establishes the Interagency Language Access Working Group in the Office of the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with the following membership: the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Director of the Office of the Children's Ombudsman, the Governor's Secretaries, and six nonlegislative citizen members representing organizations that represent individuals with language access needs. The Working Group is established for the purpose of maximizing state policies, resources, technical assistance, and procurement practices to further language access and equity in the Commonwealth and its state government agencies. The bill also requires each state agency to designate a language access coordinator who will be responsible for the agency's annual language access report, the requirements of which are set out in the bill. The Secretary of Administration is directed to establish criteria for state agencies to procure language interpretation and translation services and to establish a policy for compensating multilingual state employees who are required as part of their job to provide interpretation, translation, or other bilingual skills at least once a month. Read the Bill »

Outcome

History