RCW 43.18B.800: Findings—Intent—2026 c 142.

(1) The legislature finds that:

(a) Even before the founding of our state and country, multiple languages, including the languages of indigenous people, immigrants, people who were enslaved, and signed languages, were used by the people who lived on this land. These traditions and practices have continued through to the present day. As such, multilingualism is one of the oldest and most consistently practiced American traditions.

(b) The use of multiple languages and modalities of communication in government, business, and private affairs supports the state's effective competition in the global economy. The shared prosperity of Washingtonians can be attributed to the collective knowledge, innovation, ideas, connections, and perspectives carried out in all languages used in Washington. When language accessible programs, activities, and services are not provided, it has a negative impact on the state's economic prosperity, which is in part a result of the negative impact on small business.

(c) Washington has long recognized and enforced language access rights to ensure nondiscrimination in public programs, activities, and services in accordance with federal and state law. To this end, numerous language access laws have been enacted in Washington and upheld by courts in the areas of public assistance, legal proceedings, voting, education, emergency management, and other settings.

(d) Washington has long recognized language access as a vital public concern. The percentage of persons in the state age five and older living in households where languages other than English are spoken has increased significantly from 6.9 percent in 1980 to 21.1 percent in 2022. Failure to provide required language access services has critical personal and statewide impacts. The lack of language accessible communication and navigation services can contribute to worse outcomes for non-English language preferred individuals in our state and increase costs and government inefficiency. Decades of research has demonstrated major differences in health outcomes for patients whose preferred language is not English, from longer hospital stays to higher rates of mortality, when compared with English language preferred patients. Language accessibility is also crucial for emergency management. Protecting all communities from disasters through warnings, weather forecasting, and emergency response through multilingual communications can mean the difference between life and death. Directly related to the state's provision of language access services, respecting and supporting the provider workforce that deliver language access services is key to increasing access.

(2) Therefore, the legislature intends to affirm long recognized and enforced protections that ensure all Washingtonians have full and equal access to public programs, activities, and services, regardless of national origin, language, disability, or other protected class.