CPS may owe you money, but the window to collect is closing! CPS suggested that principals submit names of people who interpret at IEPs by February 5, but they have stated this is a “soft deadline,” so tell your principal to submit your name ASAP!
New stipend from 2019 contract
In 2019, we won bilingual education language in our contract for the first time! One of our contract wins includes an IEP interpreter stipend.
Article 44-36 of our contract states:
The Board will provide employees a $500 stipend for each semester that the employee who regularly serves as an interpreter at IEP meetings until such time as the Board establishes an internal certification process. Once the internal certification process is established, any employee who obtains the certification will receive the stipend so long as the employee agrees to interpret at IEP meetings.
The Joint CTU/CPS Bilingual Committee met recently and were informed that administrators received an IEP stipend survey on January 26, 2022 for them to fill out with names of folks in their building that have been translating at IEP meetings for fall of 2021. CPS stated that administrators should be reaching out to staff to confirm their eligibility so that they can receive the stipend.
Administrators may not know
We know that many of our members are actively and regularly translating at IEP meetings and administrators may not know it. If you believe that you have been regularly interpreting at IEP meetings and are eligible for this stipend, approach your principal about this ASAP so that your name can be included on the IEP stipend
survey that they have to submit.
Per our conversation with CPS, there is no defined amount of times that you have to interpret in order for it to be considered “interpreting regularly.” You know if you’ve been doing this work and you know if you have earned this stipend!
No certification needed yet
Additionally, the contract language does mention an internal certification process but CPS has not set that up, so that certification is not required in order to receive the stipend. CPS stated “if people are translating now, they will get paid.” So again, please reach out to your principal to include your name on the IEP stipend survey if you have done this interpreting work.
If you have any questions please reach out to LindaPerales@ctulocal1.org.
