The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2022 - 22

The Orange County Department
of Education Multilingual
Consortium: A Clearinghouse
for Educational Interpreters
This is the story of how a multilingual consortium fostered professional
virtual relationships and transformed a challenge into an opportunity
by creating an international forum of interpreters from an array of
backgrounds all with the same goal: to provide equal access to services
to our respective students, families, teachers, and communities.
By Natalia Abarca
N
o one could have
predicted that March
2020 would have
such a profound impact on
the lives of people across the
world. Had a tarot reader
advised me to prepare for
such an event, I would have
scoffed at the very idea. The
pandemic has definitely
22 The ATA Chronicle | January/February 2022
made us rethink how we see
the world.
In 2014, the Orange County
Department of Education
(OCDE) in Southern
California created the OCDE
Multilingual Consortium,
a professional network
that supports high-quality
translation and interpreting
services for school districts
and charter schools across
Orange County. The network
serves as a repository
distribution point for
language resources that
draws from the collective
knowledge and expertise
from the field.
When the Consortium
was first created, there was
an apparent need for such
support. As an organization,
we were responsive to the
needs of our stakeholders
and consequently forged
a meaningful partnership
with paraprofessionals,
community liaisons, and
other bilingual support staff
who were asked to translate,
interpret, and provide
language access to students
and families. Collectively, as a
group, we engaged in relevant
discussions, shared effective
practices, and created a
strategic and accountable
system where ideas were
turned into projects. Overall,
there was buy-in from
district and school leaders
who were heartened by our
shared efforts.
When COVID-19 hit,
our schools were faced
with managing a learning
environment filled with
much uncertainty. The
teachers, staff, and parents
who supported remote
learning environments
had little understanding
of how to integrate digital
technology into the
classroom. There were
no systems in place and
opportunities to train staff
and parents were few and
far between. In the midst
of increasing COVID-19
cases and with public health
guidelines in flux, the OCDE
Multilingual Consortium
became a virtual haven,
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