We support this bill and thank the Delegate for bringing it forward. Ensuring meaningful access to language access services is critical in protecting the lives and safety of LEP survivors and their families.

Voices for Virginia's Children supports HB 1009, which strengthens language access across state agencies serving families and children. When parents can communicate effectively with caseworkers, healthcare providers, and other public servants, children benefit from more informed decision-making and better outcomes. This bill also ensures multilingual state employees are fairly compensated for the critical skills they bring to their roles. Investing in language access is an investment in equity for Virginia's increasingly diverse families.

LAJC supports HB 1009 because it helps create language accessibility in all public facing agencies to better serve limited and non-English speaking community members in the Commonwealth. Virginia is a linguistically diverse state. According to the American Community Survey in 2024, approximately 18% of Virginians speak a language other than English at home. This percentage is even higher is some parts of the state. Improving language accessibility in our government systems would ease a major barrier for Limited English Proficient community members (many of whom already experience other major challenges in accessing services). This bill would overall not only improve the quality of the experience these community members have but also build improve their trust and familiarity with our government systems in a vital time.

I am a Virginia resident and a language access professional whose work focuses on supporting educational institutions in the development of language access processes. My work involves helping schools establish systems that support meaningful, equitable communication between institutions and families who speak languages other than English. In my experience, clear and consistent language access processes and/or policies in educational settings often emerge only when there is internal expertise or when external guidance is introduced after challenges arise, including through the Department of Justice involvement. In the absence of strong proactive guidance, school are frequently left to interpret language access requirements on their own, resulting in uneven practices and uncertainty about what "meaningful access" should look like in day-to-day educational contexts. This is why HB1009 is important at the legislative level. Requiring state agencies to develop language access plans and establish clear expectations helps create stronger, more consistent guidance for educational institutions. State-level planning provides schools with a framework to build appropriate processes before problems arise, rather than relying on reactive measures or isolated expertise. In practice, when clear guidance on language access is not established at the state level, educational institutions are often left to determine expectations internally. Responsibility for language access planning may be assigned to departments or individuals whose primary roles related to instruction, student services, or family engagement, but who may not have specialized training in language access laws, policy development, or service design. This creates an additional burden for staff who are asked to build processes without sufficient framework or support, and can lead to inconsistent practices across schools and divisions. Over time, this lack of structure affects not only staff capacity, but also families and bilingual personnel who must navigate unclear or uneven systems. This need for clear guidance is becoming even more important as educational institutions explores new tools, including artificial intelligence, to support communication with multilingual families. Without established frameworks, schools may feel pressure to adopt emerging technologies without fully understanding their limitations, risks, or appropriate role within a comprehensive language access strategy. State-level planning helps ensure that innovation is grounded in principles of meaningful access, human oversight, and equity, rather than replacing thoughtful processes with fragmented or unvetted solutions. HB1009 helps shift language access planning from an individual or ad hoc responsibility to a coordinated, statewide approach. This strengthens sustainability, improves consistency, and better supports educational institutions in meeting their obligation to provide meaningful access for linguistically diverse families. For these reasons, I support HB1009 and encourage the committee to give it thoughtful considerations. Thank you for the opportunity to submit this testimony.