Parents with students in Metro Schools who speak limited English can now have important forms explained to them by an automated phone system. The Babbline (pronounced “babble line”) will offer a total of 10 languages.

When a student brings home standard forms on issues like immunization or truancy, a code is now in the upper right hand corner. The parent calls the
hotline and enters the two-digit code. A recorded translation plays the explanation in the preferred language.

Offered now are Spanish, Arabic, Kurdish and Somali — the most common languages spoken by Metro Schools families.
Vietnamese, Nepali, Burmese, Amharic, and Kachin will be added in the coming weeks. In total,
30 percent of students come from a family in which a language other than English is spoken at home.

“Government sends out who knows how many forms every day to all kinds of people, and we want people to understand what they’re getting in the mail from the government,” says Mark Eatherly of the Metro Human Relations Commission.

Right now, Eatherly says many people who don’t speak English rely on those close to them to translate, who — he points out — may not speak English as well as they think they do.

The project is Eatherly’s brainchild, and he says so far it hasn’t required hiring additional personnel or buying new technology. If call volume is high enough, Eatherly hopes to expand the low-budget service to other departments.