8 minutes
Step 1b — CLAS at this department, and the language lists National standard. 2021 Minnesota law. Then the nested lists Equal Opportunity and Access actually publishes.
What you’ll be able to do Identify the practical implication of “Step 1b — CLAS at this department, and the language lists” and apply it to one live DHS decision connected to A Language Access Plan You Can Walk. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What should happen before the work is locked? Document a next step for Step 1b — CLAS at this department, and the language lists: Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed. What CLAS is The National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) are a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services blueprint (Office of Minority Health). Enhanced 2013. Fifteen standards. The principal standard is quality that responds to language and culture — not a festival. Standards 5–8 are the language cluster: assistance at no cost; tell people it exists, in writing and orally, in English and other languages; qualified interpreters, not untrained people or minors; easy-to-understand materials in the languages commonly used in the service area.
A poster of the fifteen is not practice. Practice is a channel that a person can actually use. After the nested lists: open From the list to the household — each language opens the right cultural intelligence, or says there is not one yet and you still book the interpreter.
How Minnesota DHS practices it Two layers, not one poster.
Law and grants (2021). Minnesota Laws 2021, First Special Session, Chapter 7, Article 11, Section 40 directed DHS to develop a statewide implementation and transition plan for the national CLAS standards, including technical assistance so providers can transition and so disparate treatment outcomes move. Article 16 funded grants to disability services, mental health, and substance use disorder treatment providers to implement CLAS. Effective July 1, 2021. The department’s CLAS page names six action areas from the national implementation framework: foster cultural competence; reflect and respect diversity; ensure language access ; build community partnerships; collect diversity data; benchmark, plan, and evaluate. That is a provider-and-system job — not a cultural-competence certificate.
Operations (Equal Opportunity and Access). Spoken and written language assistance is run as Limited English Proficiency work. Translations have been coordinated centrally since 2000. Languages on the standing lists come from a periodic analysis of DHS program participants plus division input — not from a lobby anecdote and not from a census checkbox. Other languages may be available based on need. A language missing from the standing five is not a finding that the household does not exist.
Minnesota Statute 15.441 is a separate state duty: agencies that serve a substantial number of non-English-speaking people must staff public-contact work so information and services can be provided in those languages, and should give highest priority to materials that notify people of legal rights, duties, or privileges.
The nested lists — date them; they are not the person Five — primary translation Ten — language block Fifteen — “I need an interpreter” Seventy-five — catalogue
DHS Equal Opportunity and Access, LEP resources (current public list): translations of selected documents are available in five primary languages. Other languages may be available based on need.
Hmong (pronounced mung). Russian. Somali. Spanish. Vietnamese.
That is the standing written list. It is not Maay. It is not White Hmong versus Mong Leng. It is not ASL. A vital notice still has to reach this household.
Most public DHS documents carry a language block: the right to free help interpreting the document, in ten languages.
Arabic. Hmong. Khmer (Cambodian). Lao. Oromo. Russian. Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian). Somali. Spanish. Vietnamese.
The block is notice (CLAS 6). It is not the interpreter. Staff who answer the number on the block must be ready for a non-English call and must have an LEP plan.
DHS-4374 cards, fifteen languages:
Amharic. Arabic. Burmese. Cantonese. French. Hmong. Karen. Korean. Khmer (Cambodian). Laotian. Oromo. Russian. Somali. Spanish. Vietnamese.
The person points. You still book a qualified interpreter for this dialect and this appointment. Cantonese is not “Chinese.” Karen is not Burmese as a synonym.
DHS-4059, Catalogue of Languages: Notice of Rights to Language Assistance in seventy-five languages. Use it to identify the language. Do not treat a catalogue page as a completed interview.
Put this lesson to work What you can change You control whether step 1b — clas at this department, and the language lists changes a live DHS process connected to A Language Access Plan You Can Walk or remains information on a page.
What to watch for The team completes the learning, keeps the same default, assigns no owner, and never checks who carries the burden.
Your next step Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Try a situation A team must finalize work connected to step 1b — clas at this department, and the language lists this week. The usual process is ready, but the people affected, access needs, burden, and follow-through have not been checked.
What should happen before the work is locked? Use the usual process now and ask for feedback after implementation.
Ask one colleague with relevant lived experience to approve the plan.
Name the live object, affected people, access and formal requirements, alternatives, owner, and review date.
Consider your choice Try another response Carry this forward National standard. 2021 Minnesota law. Then the nested lists Equal Opportunity and Access actually publishes.
You control whether step 1b — clas at this department, and the language lists changes a live DHS process connected to A Language Access Plan You Can Walk or remains information on a page.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Completion is shown by a scenario decision, a knowledge-check response and a saved one-minute commitment.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
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