REMARKS
Explanation of Local Law 30 of 2017 and its requirements
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147 sec
Council Member Avilés provides a detailed explanation of Local Law 30 of 2017, which mandates language access services for all designated citywide languages in New York City.
- Local Law 30 requires city agencies to provide translation, interpretation, and signage in 10 designated citywide languages
- The law mandates the development of language access implementation plans and appointment of language access coordinators
- Explanation of the 10 designated citywide languages and the process for updating the list
- Discussion of the role of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs in coordinating language access efforts
Alexa Avilés
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Ensuring that every resident of New York, no matter their preferred language, can access city services as crucial, and today we'll look closely at the city's language access law, local law 30.
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Of 2017 that was designed to ensure just that.
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In 2017, local law 30 was enacted by the city council and requires city agencies to provide services for all designated city languages.
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The law mandates that language access services must at a minimum include providing translation of the documents most commonly distributed to the public, provide interpretation services and post signage about the availability of free interpretation services in all the city wide languages.
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Under this law, there are 10 designated city wide languages based on the US census data and the New York City Department of Education's data.
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These languages include Spanish, Russian, Bengali, Haitian Creole, Korean, Arabic, Erdogan, French, Polish, and Chinese.
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Of note, the Census Bureau includes all dialects of Chinese.
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Actually, I'm not sure this is all.
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But Mandarin Cantonese, Fujonese, and Hakka under the umbrella term of Chinese.
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Local Law 30 also contemplates the administration will periodically update this list based on changes to the census and the New York City Department of Education Data.
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We look forward to learning more about how the administration is complying with the laws assessments, excuse me, complying with the law assessments by the administration regarding this list.
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The law also requires agencies to consider providing services in languages beyond these designations when they are a sufficient need among their service population.
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Local law 30 mandates agencies to develop language access implementation plans and appoints a language access coordinator.
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Under the mayor's office of immigrant affairs, the office of language services coordinator is charged with providing language access assistance to agencies, and we look forward to learning more from the mayor's of American Affairs and the mayor's office of operations about their responsibilities and how they are meeting them.
