Update on 2017 Educational Interpreter Bill

SB 5142/HB 1303 Concerning Educational Interpreters: This bill was signed by the Governor and enacted into law on April 17, 2017. This law will now do two things:

1. It will allow educational interpreters to continue working in school districts one more year (or 18 months after the educational interpreter’s last assessment) to pass the EIPA at a 3.5 or higher.

2. It will ask the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) for a report on how much it would cost to conduct a peer review study of the Educational Signed Skills Evaluation (ESSE).

The Legislature felt this bill was needed as an emergency fix to a problem school districts across Washington were facing – only 38% of all currently employed educational interpreters have passed the State minimum qualifications of a 3.5 EIPA score or higher to date. This bill does not change our current State standard (EIPA 3.5 or higher or RID certification with the EIPA written test) recognized by Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). This provision of the bill was highly opposed by Deaf community advocates. In their view, interpreters have had three years to pass the exam, and the ones that haven’t passed should not be given second, third, and fourth chances to do so. Resources that were provided to interpreters such as training and mentorship opportunities went under utilized. Advocates pointed out to our Representatives on numerous occasions that it is Deaf students who suffer while they wait for their interpreters to reach the minimum level of competency required.

Additionally, this bill asks for an odd report from OSPI. WSRID strongly opposed this second provision of the bill because it seemed like the Legislature was trying to position themselves to fund this peer review study of the ESSE. WSRID opposes the Legislature funding a peer review study of the ESSE because our State does not need a separate evaluation for SEE – the EIPA is a widely accepted test for evaluating the competency of interpreters in ASL and SEE. The EIPA even allows the interpreter taking the test to choose their preferred modality. SEE educators have been pushing for the ESSE to be adopted in Washington for years as part of the State standard because their concern that SEE interpreters will not be able to pass a rigorous test like the EIPA. While the second provision of this bill seems to only benefit the proponents for the ESSE. However, sponsors of this legislation assured us on multiple occasions the Legislature has no intention to pay for this peer review study in the future.