Who is not the interpreter

CLAS: use of untrained individuals and/or minors as interpreters should be avoided and discouraged. A benefits or protection decision is not a child’s job.

They may want to help. They are not confidential, not trained, and often not free to say no. Offer a professional. If they refuse, write it — do not prefer it.

If interpreting is in the job description, trained, and paid — that is a channel. Grabbing them from their caseload because they “look like” the family is identity as a budget. Culture without theater already named this. A Somali or Hmong coworker is not the department’s language plan — and “Somali” or “Hmong” on the five-language translation list is still a dialect question in the room.