RCW 43.18B.005: Purpose and policy—Construction.

(1) The purpose of this chapter is to affirm protections against unlawful discrimination or denial of full and equal access to public programs, activities, and services; to facilitate the use of consistent practices by state agencies; and to eliminate conflicting or unclear agency interpretations of standards, thereby increasing unity and government efficiency.

(2) The policy of the state of Washington is to provide language accessible public programs, activities, and services to all persons to the extent necessary to secure the rights, constitutional or otherwise, of persons whose primary language is not English, and to assure that they have fair access to benefits, programs, and activities regardless of their linguistic characteristics.

(3) This chapter does not create or expand rights, remedies, or protected classes that do not currently exist under state law. This chapter does not alter any otherwise applicable agency responsibility to provide meaningful language access to non-English language preferred individuals or individuals with limited English proficiency, including those speaking languages of lesser diffusion.