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11  AN ACT designating English as the official language of the state of Kansas
12    and concerning its use by state agencies and political subdivisions.
13
14  Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
15    Section 1.  (a) English shall be designated as the official language of
16  the state of Kansas.
17    (b)  The official language is designated as the language of any official
18  public document or record and any official public meeting:
19    (1)  An official public document or record is any document officially
20  compiled, published or recorded by the state including deeds, publicly
21  probated wills, records of births, deaths and marriages and any other
22  document or record required to be kept open for public inspection pur-
23  suant to the open records act.
24    (2)  An official public meeting is any meeting required to be open
25  pursuant to K.S.A. 75-4317 et seq. and amendments thereto.
26    (c)  Except as otherwise provided by law, no state agency or political
27  subdivision of the state shall be required to provide any documents, in-
28  formation, literature or other written materials in any language other than
29  English.
30    Sec. 2.  A state agency or political subdivision or its officers or em-
31  ployees may act in a language other than the English language for any of
32  the following purposes:
33    (a)  To provide information orally to individuals in the course of de-
34  livering services to the general public;
35    (b)  to comply with federal law;
36    (c)  to protect the public health or safety;
37    (d)  to protect the rights of parties and witnesses in a civil or criminal
38  action in a court or in an administrative proceeding;
39    (e)  to provide instruction in foreign and native American language
40  courses;
41    (f)  to provide instruction designed to aid students with limited Eng-
42  lish proficiency so they can make a timely transition to use of the English
43  language in the public schools;
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 1    (g)  to promote international commerce, trade or tourism;
 2    (h)  to use terms of art or phrases from languages other than the Eng-
 3  lish language in documents.
 4    Sec. 3.  A state agency or political subdivision, including its officers
 5  or employees, acting under any of the provisions of section two shall
 6  delineate as a separate budget line item in the agency, departmental or
 7  office budget all costs related to the preparation, translation, printing and
 8  recording of documents, records, brochures, pamphlets, flyers or other
 9  informational materials in languages other than the official language.
10    Sec. 4.  No person may be denied employment with the state or any
11  political subdivision of the state based solely upon that person's lack of
12  facility in a foreign language, except where related to bona fide job needs
13  reflected in the exemptions in section 3.
14    Sec. 5.  This act may not be construed in any way to infringe upon
15  the rights of citizens under the constitution of the state of Kansas or the
16  constitution of the United States in the use of language in any private
17  activity. No agency or officer of the state or any political subdivision of
18  the state may place any restrictions or requirements regarding language
19  usage in any business operating in the private sector other than official
20  documents, forms, submissions or other communications directed to gov-
21  ernment agencies and officers, which communications shall be in the
22  common language as recognized in this act.
23    Sec. 6.  This act may not be construed in any way to limit the use of
24  any other language by a tribal government of native Americans located in
25  the state of Kansas. A school district and a tribe, by mutual agreement,
26  may provide for the instruction of students that recognizes the cultural
27  identity of native American children and promotes the use of a common
28  language for communication.
29    Sec. 7.  Any citizen of the state of Kansas has standing to bring an
30  action against the state to enforce this act. The circuit court has jurisdic-
31  tion to hear and decide any such action brought pursuant to this act.
32    Sec. 8.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
33  publication in the statute book.