WeVote
Log In

Bill

Bill

SB 5304

Testing individuals who provide language access to state services.

2023-2024 Regular Session Introduced by Joe Nguyen and 4 co-sponsors

DSHS must require interpreters for state services to pass written and oral tests to ensure language access, with a work group guiding statewide certification.

Effective date 7/23/2023.
0
WeVote Research Nonpartisan
Bill Summary · SB 5304

SB 5304 — Testing individuals who provide language access to state services (2023)

Status: Passed Legislature (2023), Governor signed 4/14/2023 — Effective 7/23/2023
Primary statutory change: amendment to RCW 74.04.025

Purpose / Intent

To improve the quality, accuracy, and accountability of spoken-language interpretation used in delivery of state services by requiring competency testing and by studying statewide certification needs and options. The legislature found that poor or informal interpretation can cause serious harms and intended to require both written and oral assessment for interpreters who deliver state services.

Key provisions

  • Testing requirement

    • The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) must require successful completion of oral and written tests, per established standards, to ensure language access providers are fluent in English and a primary non-English language.
    • Tests must evaluate: language competence, interpreting performance skills, understanding of the interpreter’s role, and knowledge of DSHS policies on confidentiality, accuracy, impartiality, and neutrality.
    • DSHS may develop and administer the testing program itself.

  • Limits on privatization/conflict of interest

    • DSHS may not award testing or certification authority to any private entity that has a financial interest in directly providing interpreter services.

  • Retention of current testing-offer rules

    • Existing statutory circumstances under which DSHS offers spoken-language interpreter testing remain (e.g., languages with significant unfilled demand, decertified interpreters, current DSHS-certified interpreters seeking additional credentials).

  • Language access work group

    • DSHS must convene a work group to study and make recommendations on certification policies and programs.
    • Membership: two legislative appointees (one from each of the two largest caucuses in each chamber) plus DSHS-selected stakeholders representing medical interpreters, unions, families with access barriers, community organizations, DSHS leadership, professionals experienced with online certification, etc.
    • Required deliverables: criteria for certification, rural and low-demand language access strategies, workforce resiliency and compensation strategies, ethics/professional standards, investments needed for online testing, and an implementation plan for an online testing system aligned with nationally recognized standards.
    • Schedule: first meeting by August 1, 2023; final report to the Legislature by December 1, 2023. DSHS provides staff support.

Who is affected

  • DSHS (implementation, testing, and convening the work group)
  • Language access providers/interpreters who work for state agencies or on state-funded appointments (certification/testing requirements)
  • State agencies that rely on DSHS-certified interpreters (e.g., Health Care Authority/Medicaid, Labor & Industries, courts, Department of Children, Youth, & Families)
  • Limited English proficient Washingtonians, especially in rural areas and speakers of lower-demand languages (impacts access and quality)

Fiscal & procedural notes

  • No specific appropriation included in the bill; fiscal note available.
  • The bill’s effective date is 90 days after adjournment of the legislative session in which it passed (implemented as effective 7/23/2023).

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

Sign in to ask a question.