Florida Senate - 2016                              CS for SB 916
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Education Pre-K - 12; and Senators Altman
       and Soto
       
       581-02944-16                                           2016916c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to qualifications for educational
    3         interpreters; creating s. 1012.441, F.S.; requiring
    4         the State Board of Education to adopt standards for
    5         educational interpreters; requiring school districts
    6         to notify parents if an individual assigned to provide
    7         interpreter services for their student does not meet
    8         such standards; requiring school districts to report
    9         to the Department of Education, for publication on its
   10         website, certain information regarding individuals
   11         providing interpreter services; providing an effective
   12         date.
   13          
   14  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   15  
   16         Section 1. Section 1012.441, Florida Statutes, is created
   17  to read:
   18         1012.441 Qualifications for educational interpreters.—
   19         (1) The State Board of Education shall adopt by rule
   20  standards for educational interpreters. An educational
   21  interpreter is an individual who facilitates direct instruction
   22  by professionals and directs communication between students who
   23  are deaf or hard of hearing and their peers as designated in
   24  each student’s individual education plan or 504 accommodation
   25  plan. The standards must include interpreter assessments,
   26  including both written and performance assessments, offered by a
   27  national organization of professional sign language interpreters
   28  and transliterators.
   29         (2) Beginning July 1, 2017, each school district shall:
   30         (a) Notify a parent in writing if an individual assigned to
   31  provide interpreter services for his or her student, in
   32  accordance with the student’s individual education plan or 504
   33  accommodation plan, does not meet the educational interpreter
   34  standards established in state board rule.
   35         (b) Report to the Department of Education, for publication
   36  on its website, the total number of individuals providing
   37  interpreter services in the district and the total number of
   38  such individuals who meet the educational interpreter standards
   39  established in state board rule.
   40         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2016.