Helping our Japanese Families Learn How to Apply to ISB

At ISB, we have both Japanese and Korean Community Liaisons. For other nationalities, we have community representatives. The Community reps assist in connecting you to other families within our community and host social events to help new community members meet some new people and to be connected to their home culture.

The goal of our Japanese liaison is to ensure that your child feels safe and comfortable at ISB and enable them to access the resources they need to be successful. The liaison also provides an avenue of communication and support to provide clarity and help your family understand ISB’s culture, processes, and expectations.

1. Acting as a translator and liaison between staff, your children, and you for elementary, middle, and high schools, including parent meetings, orientation presentations, visiting students to check on their wellbeing, parent-teacher conferences, and more.
   
   
2. Talking to your children and listening to their concerns and needs, then passing the information to counselors, administrators, and school psychologists when appropriate.
   
   
3. Listening to your needs and questions and passing them on to an appropriate person.
   
   
4. Giving advice and explanations to both you and your children. For example, they teach you how to self-advocate as well as help you understand what the school expects to see from your children.
   
   
5. Occasionally going into classrooms during lessons and explaining to your children what the teacher is asking of them.
   
   
6. Emailing staff, your children, and you (they can also provide written translations/ summaries of teachers’ emails).
   
   
7. Providing translations for school communications and publications such as parent-school eNews.
   
   
8. Providing support/translation services during emergency or crisis