Translation Services

How to Request Oral Interpretation Services

To request language interpretation / translation services for individual school activities such as parent conferences or general school meetings, please send an email to: interpreting@4j.lane.edu. 

As part of your request, please provide us with the following information, at least a week prior to the meeting or activity.

• Language requested
• School and contact person’s phone number
• Date and time of meeting or activity
• Type of meeting or activity
• Location (i.e. building and room number or building area)
• Student’s name
• And, IF NEEDED, student and parent’s name(s) and contact information
  (only if you would like the interpreter to contact the family directly)

Send requests to interpreting@4j.lane.edu.

Questions? Contact Debi Starr, ELL Program Assistant, at 541-790-6514.

(Note: This process applies to most requests, but not all. To request a sign interpreter, contact Adelka Shawn, shawn@4j.lane.edu, 541-790-7850. If you need oral interpretation services for activities related to Educational Support Services, such as IEPs and eligibility meetings, please contact ESS directly: Susan Dawe, dawe@4j.lane.edu, 541-790-7800.)

How to Request Written Translation Services

If you need translation of a written document, first look to see if a suitable form or document is available on the TransACT website, www.transact.com (there is no charge for your school; you will need to create a free login to access the site).

If not, send an email to interpreting@4j.lane.edu to request written translation services or discuss alternate methods of providing the information. Please attach a Microsoft Word version of the document or documents that need to be translated.

If you have questions, contact Debi Starr, ELL Program Assistant, at 541-790-6514.

Important Considerations

• If interpretation can be provided by bilingual classified personnel based at your site, it is not necessary to contact the interpreter coordinators. However, please make sure staff are fairly compensated if they are working beyond their assigned hours.

• Students should not be used as interpreters, especially when relaying academic or behavioral information to parents. 

• When planning parent conferences, please consider interpreting needs from the start. Work with your staff in advance to group families within a certain time block to best utilize our interpreters during this busy time. Ideally, as many families as possible who need interpretetation services in a given language should be grouped together on a given day or days.

• Please keep in mind that a quick phone call by an interpreter to explain written information sent home in English may be a more effective and personal way of getting the message across than a written translation of the document. In this case, please include any information to be communicated when making a request.

• Will you need interpretation for multiple people in the same language at one event? Talk and Listen Kits may be the answer. 4J now offers this helpful tool for large group interpreting. An interpreter is set up with the voice-silencing PrivacyMic microphone, which is connected to a transmitter. Listeners in the audience are equipped with a receiver and listening device and can hear as a speaker gives their presentation, simultaneously in the desired language. Please note in your request that you feel this technology would be an asset in the setting you are requesting an interpreter for.

• TransACT for printed documents: If you are looking for standard school-related forms or parent notification documents, check out the TransACT website.  This is a FREE database of standard school-related parent letters (e.g., NCLB and IDEA notifications, free/reduced lunch forms, as well as health and other general education information.  Visit www.transact.com, create a login, and find specific documents which can be downloaded instantly — in more than 20 languages!