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Certified Translation for Schools and Districts

A district registrar is usually handling an enrollment with a folder of documents in a language nobody in the building reads, on a deadline set by the first day of school. This page is about how schools and districts arrange that, and about one thing worth checking before you spend anything.

First: check whether you need a certified translation at all

School enrollment is the one context where the answer is frequently no. Many districts accept a translation prepared by a district employee or a community liaison, or provide translation themselves under their language-access obligations, and some accept documents in the original language with a staff review.

Ask your own district policy before buying anything, and ask the receiving office if it is not yours. We would rather tell you that than sell a translation you did not need — and where a certified translation is genuinely required, usually for a foreign transcript being evaluated for placement or credit, that is what this page is for.

One account, many colleagues, one bill

An organisation does not order translations as one person. A team account lets colleagues work under a shared account with two roles. A member is for colleagues who send documents: they can place orders, see any order in the team, invite others, and pay. An admin is for whoever owns the account, and adds control over who belongs to the team and how the team pays.

That second part is the one that changes how an office works. An admin sets the team to pay per order, or on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly cycle. With a cycle set, the person placing the order never sees a payment step — the button at checkout reads Place Order rather than Pay. The people who send documents stop needing a card, and the person who controls the money stops being a bottleneck.

How a district usually sets this up

Registrars and counselors across several schools are members of one team; the district office is the admin. Everyone can see any order in the team, which matters when a student moves between schools mid-process and a different person picks up the file. Billing runs on a monthly cycle against one invoice.

Where a family is paying for their own records — a transcript evaluation for a private application, for example — a payment link goes to the family and the school stays out of the transaction.

Three ways the bill can be handled

Different institutions need the money to move differently, so there are three arrangements and you can use more than one.

• Per order. The person placing the order pays at checkout. Simple, and right for occasional use.
• On a cycle. An admin sets weekly, bi-weekly or monthly billing. Orders go through without a payment step and the invoice arrives on the cycle, payable by credit card, check or wire transfer.
• The end client pays. Send a payment link by email to the client, the student or the applicant. You manage the workflow and the delivery; they pay for their own quote. It is how firms and schools stay out of the middle of a transaction that was never theirs.

What schools actually send

The documents that recur in an enrollment folder:

• School records and report cards
• Academic transcripts and diplomas, and the grading key printed on them
• Birth certificates for age and identity
• Vaccination and immunization records
• Custody or guardianship documents
• Enrollment certificates from the previous school

Grades are reproduced, never converted

A foreign transcript is translated with its marks exactly as recorded and its grading key alongside. We do not convert marks into a US grade point average, because that is credential evaluation rather than translation and the agencies that do it do not agree with one another.

It matters more than it sounds: a Philippine 1.00 is the highest mark available, a German 1 is the best and a 4 is the pass, and a Korean grade point is commonly out of 4.5. A placement decision made on a converted number is made on a number nobody authorised. See university and credential submissions.

How it works

Upload a photo or a scan of your document, pick the language pair and check out online. You never have to mail originals: a legible copy is all we need.

A professional human translator, never machine translation, translates the document word for word and mirrors the layout of the original. Every certified translation ships with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy that meets the requirements of USCIS, courts and universities.

Your translation is delivered digitally, usually within 24 hours for documents of one to three pages, and same-day delivery is available. If anything needs adjusting, we revise it.

Frequently asked questions

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