Supervisors Direct Department of Children and Family Services to Explore Expanding Services in Asian Languages

Motion by Hahn calls for consistent access in underrepresented languages such as Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali, and Samoan

LOS ANGELES —  The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has moved forward with an effort led by Supervisor Janice Hahn to improve multilingual access in the Asian Pacific program of the county’s Department of Children and Family Services or DCFS. Among other things, Hahn’s motion directs the department to study gaps in consistent access to dedicated resources for speakers of Asian and Pacific Islander languages that are currently underserved by the department, and to explore the feasibility of expanding services in those languages.

“Every child in LA County deserves the full protection of our safety net, and every family deserves the resources to navigate it no matter what language they speak at home. Our linguistic and cultural diversity are part of what make LA County great, and it’s time to make sure that our County family is equipped to fully support these communities, especially during some of the most sensitive and difficult moments of their lives,” said Supervisor Hahn, whose district includes large South and Southeast Asian American communities in cities such as Long Beach, Cerritos, and Artesia, among others.

Hahn’s office was contacted by the nonprofit organization South Asian Network, which brought the issue forward after a recent incident in which they intervened on behalf of a woman involved in a DCFS case. During the incident, law enforcement was called and DCFS was then dispatched due to a child being in the home. The client’s English was very limited, yet no interpreter was provided. Due to her testimony being improperly understood, the investigation wrongly labeled her the perpetrator, causing her to lose custodial rights and the court to take steps to grant the visitation rights for the father, despite his potential danger to the child. The South Asian Network provided a dedicated caseworker who spoke Bengali and advocated for the client and child, leading to their reunification.

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders or AANHPI make up 16% of the county’s approximately 10 million residents, spanning a range of languages, ethnicities, and cultures. Over a third of that AANHPI population speak a language other than English. Of those, more than 50,000 people speak Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali, Tongan, or Samoan, languages that do not yet have dedicated staff and resources within DCFS. DCFS is one of the largest child protective agencies in the nation, and serves more than 2 million children across the 88 cities and all unincorporated areas in the county.