03 — Document translation
Translation that holds up when the family reads it.
IFSPs, IEPs, procedural safeguards, evaluation reports, family communications. Translated by humans briefed on Early Intervention and K-12 special education.
What we translate
Three categories of documents.
IEPs & Procedural Safeguards
The legally-mandated documents — translated by humans with IDEA compliance in mind.
Evaluation Reports & Consent Forms
PWN, evaluation reports, consent forms — the documents that gate every IDEA decision.
Family Communications
Letters home, registration, handbooks, discipline notices, conference invitations.
Notice must be provided in the parent's native language, unless clearly not feasible.
34 CFR § 300.503
The process
How a translation gets done.
We do not run documents through machine translation and ship the output. Every IEP, procedural safeguards notice, and evaluation report is translated by a human translator with K-12 special-education experience. A second translator reviews. The district receives the translated document with an attestation.
For lower-stakes content — newsletters, general school communications — we offer machine-translation post-editing (MTPE) at a lower price point. It is a clear distinction, so districts always know which workflow they're buying. See Why Google Translate isn't enough for IEPs.
Common questions
Document translation FAQs.
Can we use Google Translate for IEP documents?
Not for consent-bearing documents. Machine translation flattens conditional language, drops acronyms, and produces fluent-looking but legally invalid output. Use it for newsletters and event flyers; use human translators for IFSPs, IEPs, evaluation reports, and PWN.
What kind of translator should be doing this work?
A translator with documented training in the source and target languages, professional experience translating special-education documents, and an understanding of the legal vocabulary involved. "Bilingual" isn't the same thing.
What's the difference between sight translation and document translation?
Sight translation is reading a document aloud in the target language on the spot — useful for consent forms at a meeting. Document translation is a written translation delivered as a reviewed document. They are not interchangeable.
How is parent PII handled?
Every translator on the roster has a signed FERPA-aligned NDA before they're briefed on a case. Documents move over secure transmission; PII does not appear in our quote or proposal workflow.
How quickly can ETS turn around an IEP translation?
Standard turnaround for Spanish or Portuguese IEP translation is three to five business days. Same-day quotes; rush available for under-48-hour annual-review windows.
Get a quote
Tell us about the document. We send back a quote.
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