Title VI: meaningful access for LEP families.

The Supreme Court interpreted Title VI in Lau v. Nichols (1974) to require schools to take affirmative steps to ensure language barriers don't exclude LEP students from meaningful participation. The OCR/DOJ 2015 Dear Colleague guidance spelled out the operational duties: identify EL students, provide adequate language assistance programs, communicate essential information with LEP parents in a language they can understand, and use qualified interpreters and translators.

• Registration and enrollment forms; language-assistance program notices
• Parent handbooks; report cards; gifted-and-talented program information
• Special-education and IEP-related communications
• Student-discipline policies and procedures
• Parent-teacher conference notices
• Grievance procedures and notices of nondiscrimination
• Requests for parental permission
• Promotional notices about school activities

The 2015 guidance was explicit: schools must use qualified interpreters and translators — not children, untrained bilingual staff, or family members. Qualified means trained, ethics-bound, and competent in specialized terminology where the context requires it (medical, legal, educational).