Transcreation: When Timely Information Meets Culture, Children and Families Thrive  

Impact Showcase | May 18, 5:30–7:00 pm · KidsQuest Children’s Museum, Bellevue 

Education systems are complex and often difficult to understand as a fluent English speaker. Imagine how difficult it is to support your child’s education in a language you are unfamiliar with? 

Locally, over 100 languages are spoken in the Bellevue School District (BSD) and Lake Washington School District (LWSD), respectively and Spanish is the 2nd or 3rd most common language among students with limited English proficiency. Yet for many families, even with translation tools available, the information still doesn’t land — because mechanical translation does not lend cultural context. 

Communication is the bridge between families and the education system — and for Spanish-speaking families in BSD and LWSD that bridge was fragile before 2019 with the pandemic widening the gap. As both districts worked hard to keep families informed, the volume of communication increased, but for many families, little of it was understandable.  

Eastside Pathways’ COVID Collaborative Action Network brought together cross-sectoral partners to align around emergent problems, mobilize resources, and support children, youth, and families. One group within the network took on a question that couldn’t wait: how do we make information truly equitable? They challenged themselves to move past translation and out of that commitment, Equity in Communications launched Noticias en Español. 

Noticias operates on a transcreation model — going far beyond machine translation to present school information in a voice that is culturally familiar and genuinely accessible. Emergency information, enrollment deadlines, IEP meetings, FAFSA, scholarships, interpreter requests, the steps to college — all of it, in a way that families can act on. What started as bi-monthly Spanish language videos on Facebook is now a weekly program, published on YouTube and Facebook and distributed directly through BSD and LWSD communication channels — a reach made possible by both districts working in tandem with Noticias.  

The impact is evident. In a recent focus group, every single respondent said Noticias helped them better understand the local and American school system — and that confidence is showing up in how families advocate for and support their children.  

This is how transcreated, equitable access becomes opportunity, and opportunity becomes student success.