HCR30

WHEREAS, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 United States Code, Section 2000d) provides that "no person in the United States, on the grounds of race, color, or national origin, shall be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefit of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance"; and

WHEREAS, according to the 2000 United States Census, approximately twenty-four per cent of Hawaii's population speak a language other than English at home, including over two hundred fifty thousand persons who speak an Asian or Pacific Island language; and

WHEREAS, for the percentage of Hawaii's population for whom English is not their primary language and who have identified themselves as having limited English proficiency, a language barrier often prohibits them from fully participating in the community and undermines their efforts to become self-sufficient and productive; and

WHEREAS, in 2006, the Legislature acknowledged that language is a barrier for individuals with limited proficiency in English and enacted Act 290, Session Laws of Hawaii 2006, which was codified as sections 371-31 through 371-37, Hawaii Revised Statutes, also known as Hawaii's language access law; and

WHEREAS, Hawaii's language access law seeks to eliminate language barriers by requiring every state agency and any person or organization that receives state funding and provides services to the public on behalf of the State to "take reasonable steps to ensure meaningful access to services, programs, and activities by limited English proficient persons," free of charge and regardless of what language the person speaks; and

WHEREAS, Hawaii's language access law also established the Office of Language Access in the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to provide oversight, coordination, and technical assistance to state agencies and state-funded entities and to review and monitor each state agency's language access compliance plan; and

WHEREAS, despite the education, training, and community outreach activities conducted by the office of language access, many Hawaii residents are still unaware of the language access law and of the daily challenges faced by persons of limited English proficiency, especially in instances when, for example:

(1) A patient goes to a medical appointment and the doctor speaks only English and the patient speaks Chinese;

(2) A state social worker meets with a client applying for food stamps and the social worker speaks English and Ilocano and the client speaks Marshallese; or

(3) A public school nurse calls home about a child with a fever and the child's mother speaks Korean but not English; and

WHEREAS, ongoing education efforts are needed to ensure that language access becomes a normal process that is accepted in the provision of state government services; and

WHEREAS, a month dedicated to the promotion of language access and information dissemination about the requirements and benefits of Hawaii's language access laws would advance the goal of equal access and full participation of persons of limited English proficiency; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2008, the Senate concurring, that the month of September of this year and each succeeding year is declared to be language access month in Hawaii to raise awareness of the state language access laws and the provision of equal access to state and state-funded government services; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor and each member of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

September as Language Access Month in Hawaii

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	30
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII