bilingual parent liaisons

I have heard about bilingual parent liaisons. These individuals are employed by school districts with large ELL populations. They facilitate communication between families and schools. Does anyone have positions like these in their districts? I'd like to know more about them. The gap between homes and schools is where so many of our ELL kids get lost.

Thanks!.

Tags: ELL, bilingual, communication, liaison, parent

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Permalink Reply by Patricia Muller on February 11, 2009 at 7:52pm

I have worked in districts with such people and they are very valuable as they know the families well and can help remove obstacles to learning. Beware though that they are often made to serve as an additional secretary in understaffed offices. Their hours need to be different from a regular employee, like maybe 12-8 so they can focus on home visits and community outreach.

Pat

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Permalink Reply by Monica Avalos on July 30, 2009 at 7:45pm

I'm new to classroom 2.0. My district employs bilingual translators to help during all types of parent/teacher conferences. They work the same school hours as the rest of staff. There's also a parent welcome center where parents can go with concerns and questions, especially parents new to the district. This center serves both bilingual and monoligual families. They hold monthly meetings/workshops to educate parents on district pollicies as well as to provide them with information about community services.

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Permalink Reply by T. White on July 31, 2009 at 3:15am

My former district in the States had a number of bilingual liaisons, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Khmer. I'm sure I could get you in contact with one if you'd like.

http://www.clayton.k12.ga.us/SecondLanguageLearning/ils/liaisons.asp

Hope this helps,

- Troy