HB 1303 Ed. Interpreter Standard Hearing

There will be a hearing to amend the educational interpreter standard on Tuesday, January 31, 2017, at 1:30. Info here http://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=1303&Chamber=House&Year=2017.

Overall, this bill does not fundamentally change our educational interpreter standard. If passed, this bill would accomplish two things:

1. It will give interpreters who failed the EIPA one year to retake the exam

2. It asks the Office of the Superintendent for a report about how much it would cost for the legislature to fund a study of the validity of the ESSE exam (Signing Exact English assessment from the SEE Center)

WSAD, DPAC, and WSRID are in favor of the one year extension considering there has been a very low number of educational interpreters who have passed, but we are asking the legislature strike the section that asks for a report on how much it would cost to pay for the validity study.

Reasoning: Our legislature has rejected previous bills that would adopt the ESSE because the ESSE has no validity or reliability data. We agree with our legislature about the need for a valid test, but we believe that there is no need for the ESSE in our state when the EIPA test is able to effectively assess interpreters in both ASL and English. We believe the SEE advocates have been trying to amend our current educational interpreter standard to create a loophole for SEE interpreters that may not have the skills and training in interpreting to be qualified to work in schools. We also do not believe it is the responsibility of our legislature to hand money to for-profit organizations to create loopholes in our laws.

WSAD, DPAC, and WSRID will be submitting our comments to the education committee. However, if you have strong feelings on this legislation, the hearing will be open to the public, and you can go in person to testify or submit comments, or you can submit comments directly to members of the committee.

Here is a link to the members of the House education committee

http://leg.wa.gov/House/Committees/ED/Pages/MembersStaff.aspx

And here is the contact info for all representatives

sharontomiko.santos@leg.wa.gov, laurie.dolan@leg.wa.gov, monicajurado.stonier@leg.wa.gov, paul.harris@leg.wa.gov, dick.muri@leg.wa.gov, steve.bergquist@leg.wa.gov, michelle.caldier@leg.wa.gov, mark.hargrove@leg.wa.gov, norm.johnson@leg.wa.gov, christine.kilduff@leg.wa.gov, john.lovick@leg.wa.gov, bob.mccaslin@leg.wa.gov, lillian.oritzself@leg.wa.gov, tana.senn@leg.wa.gov, vandana.slatter@leg.wa.gov, larry.springer@leg.wa.gov, mike.steele@leg.wa.gov, drew.stokesbary@leg.wa.gov, mike.volz@leg.wa.gov