LAO Report Preview
This report provides a picture of the current status of language access in San Francisco through multiple lenses : self-reported compliance data by City departments , City residents ’ perspectives on language services and needs , and recommendations that incorporate these findings .
Compliance data from the most recent fiscal year ( July 1 , 2020 to June 30 , 2021 ) covers the 2020 election and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic . Departments showed overall increases in LEP client interactions , the volume of translated materials , and the number of bilingual staff who are certified as bilingual by the Department of Human Resources ( DHR ). The declining trend in the number of bilingual employees across Departments continued from previous years . There was an overall decline in budget expenditures for language services , although some individual Departments increased their expenditures .
The Recommendations Section of this report incorporates takeaways from self-reported Department compliance data and the Language Access Community Survey . This includes recommendations regarding Departments ’ language access policies , training , staff recruitment and retention , and other elements of the San Francisco language access framework .
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