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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion directing the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to develop a plan to improve its language services for Indigenous families and to strengthen its Asian Pacific and Native American programs.

Under the motion, DCFS would be required to increase interpreting services, particularly for Indigenous languages, and to provide training so workers can better identify Indigenous families. The motion also recommends that the department study the feasibility of increasing bilingual pay for its workers and provide recommendations to reduce language and cultural barriers.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors called for the motion after reviewing the results of an initial investigation conducted by the Los Angeles County Office of Child Protection regarding the circumstances of a four-year-old boy who was allegedly tortured and beaten by his foster mother, leaving the boy in a coma. Those results suggested that language or cultural barriers may have played a role in social workers’ decision to place the boy in foster care.

The boy’s birth mother is a Guatemalan immigrant who primarily speaks Akateko, a Mayan language. Her family claimed that she wasn’t provided with an interpreter and that social workers failed to effectively communicate with her before taking Andres and his two-year-old brother away from her.

The four-year-old, Andres F., was hospitalized October 28 with life-threatening injuries. His foster mother, Gabriela Casarez, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of child abuse and one count of assault leading to coma or paralysis.

The Los Angeles County Office of Child Protection will conduct an additional investigation this month into Andres’ case. The investigation will focus on the handling of the case by DCFS and other county agencies, including the experience level of social workers and how they addressed language and cultural barriers.

Advocates say that other Indigenous children have been placed into foster care because of miscommunications and discrimination within the child welfare system.

According to data collected by the Comunidades Indigenas en Liderazgo (CIELO), a nonprofit organization that works jointly with Indigenous communities residing in Los Angeles, the county is home to more than 30 Indigenous groups from Mexico and Central America who speak at least 17 languages.

“CIELO knows first-hand that vital services are too often denied because of language barriers and the inability to recognize the unique needs of these communities,” said Odilia Romero, co-founder and executive director of CIELO, who worked with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on the motion.

“These are communities integral to the fabric of our county, but they often endure unacceptable language barriers that make it hard to navigate systems,” said Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn, the members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors who coauthored the motion. “One of the greatest challenges the Indigenous communities face is demographic invisibility, given how often they are simply labeled as ‘Latino/Mexican,’ which makes justifying language services even harder. This extends to our child welfare system.”

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