Report 2010-106 Recommendation 3 Responses

Report 2010-106: Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act: State Agencies Do Not Fully Comply With the Act, and Local Governments Could Do More to Address Their Clients' Needs (Release Date: November 2010)

Recommendation #3 To: Corrections and Rehabilitation, Department of

To ensure that they meet their constituents' language needs, state agencies should make certain that they accurately assess and report their clients' language needs to the State Personnel Board. State agencies should also analyze formally their language survey results and consider other available bilingual resources to determine their true staffing deficiencies. Further, state agencies should establish procedures to identify the written materials that the Act requires them to translate into other languages and ensure that such materials are translated or made accessible to the agencies' LEP clients. Finally, state agencies should develop detailed corrective action plans describing how and when they will address their staffing and written materials deficiencies. In addition, they should submit their corrective action plans to the State Personnel Board as part of the state agencies' overall implementation plans.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2012

The CDCR developed both a Bilingual Coordinator Manual and a Language Services Manual. The Language Services Manual is found on the departmental intranet. To ensure accurate assessment and reporting of clients' language needs to the State Personnel Board, the Bilingual Coordinator Manual included information on how to identify potentially inaccurate/skewed tally sheets; evaluated the 2010 Biennial Language Survey results (determining CDCR had no true deficiencies); developed and posted a Language Services Manual on the department internet website; and facilitated the current survey through executive staff (Adult Institutions, Parole Regions, Health Care, etc.), requiring they designate their programs' Survey Liaisons. In order to formally analyze language survey results, CDCR evaluated each location initially identified as deficient, identifying other available bilingual staff and contracting resources, and determined there were no true deficiencies; this is included in the Bilingual Language Survey Implementation Plan provided to the State Personnel Board (SPB) on October 12, 2011. Additionally, CDCR developed a Bilingual Position Deficiency Plan to facilitate evaluation and reporting of staffing deficiencies; this is included in Section 8-Bilingual Position Deficiency Plan, in the Bilingual Coordinator Manual. To ensure identification, translation, and distribution of written materials in accordance with the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Service Act, CDCR provided process and information in Section 10-Translated Materials, in the Bilingual Coordinator Manual. CDCR's Bilingual Language Survey Implementation Plan submitted to SPB, required submission of plans to correct identified deficiencies; however, there were no true deficiencies identified for CDCR in the Bilingual Language Survey Implementation Plan.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2010-106

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.