Denver Public Schools faced challenges in ensuring effective communication with its families. “At any given time, we speak between 160 and 200 different languages,” shared Trevon Brandhorst, Director of Community Engagement and Outreach. This language diversity and influx of over 3,500 newcomer families, primarily Spanish-speaking, stretched DPS’ ability to provide immediate support.

What’s more, these language barriers limited families’ ability to participate fully in essential school activities like parent-teacher conferences and enrollment. Also, it prevented them from accessing much-needed community resources. “We want every family to feel welcomed and included,” Brandhorst emphasized, “but without the right tools, it was difficult to engage effectively.” Often, these barriers left parents disconnected from their children’s education, further emphasizing the need for additional translation tools to bridge the gap.

Even though DPS’ robust translation and interpretation services team worked tirelessly to address the community’s needs, the scale of demand required innovative solutions to increase their capacity. “Our team does an incredible job,” said Brandhorst, “but with growing multilingual needs, we had to explore new tools to support our mission.”

Of course, DPS staff used a variety of approaches to bridge language gaps, such as Google Translate and assistance from bilingual individuals or professional interpreters. While these methods worked well, their limitations underscored the need for a complementary tool. They needed a solution to help staff and non-English-speaking families have real-time, accurate, and simultaneously translated conversations on demand