August 21, 2005
I am writing an update as promised following the first meeting of the Idaho State Speech and Hearing Services Board which was held on Friday, August 19th. This will be my last e-mail/update regarding licensure. You can follow the process and direct questions to the Board effective immediately. The e-mail address is: https://www.ibol.idaho.gov if you are typing the address the “s” needs to follow the http due to the secure server. You may also access this website through the Idaho State web page. Once you have accessed the Bureau of Occupational Licenses web page, locate the individual board page, and then follow the link for the Speech and Hearing Services Board. I am requesting a link from the ISHA website as well.
It has been a pleasure to work with all of you. Thank you for all of the hard work and words of support offered during this process.\
August 15, 2005
Governor Kempthorne has appointed the members of the Speech and Hearing Services Licensure Board. The first board meeting is scheduled for Friday, August 19, 2005. At that time, we will begin the process of writing the rules. I will have more information and send another update after Friday. My next update will include the names of the board members and what to expect next. If you have any specific questions you would like answered, please e-mail me at ishalicensure@hotmail.com no later than Thursday evening so that I can ask appropriate questions.
Joanne Larsen
STATE LICENSING NETWORK UPDATE
APRIL 2005
This is the latest update on state licensing issues in audiology and speech-language pathology. The summary below of the enacted state legislation was developed from a computer tracking system and contact with individual ASHA members and the state speech-language-hearing association.
IDAHO
H.B. 247 was signed into law by Governor Dirk Kempthorne (R) on April 5, 2005. This bill establishes licensure for audiology and speech language pathology. With the passage of this bill, the District of Columbia becomes the only entity in the United States that does not regulate one or both professions.
The bill actually repeals the Hearing Aid Dealers and Fitters Act and replaces it with the Speech and Hearing Practice Act which regulates hearing aid dealers, audiologists and speech-language pathologists. The bill incorporates a number of provisions contained in the ASHA Model Licensure Bill including the transitional educational standard for audiology applicants required for ASHA certification from 2007 through 2012. In addition, the bill authorizes a provisional permit for individuals completing a professional experience as part of a doctoral program in audiology and provides civil and criminal penalties for unlicensed practice. The bill also provides regulation for two tiers of support personnel: speech language pathology aides (bachelors level) and speech language pathology assistants (associates level). The bill does exempt practice in the public schools and this was a necessary compromise that the Idaho Speech Language Hearing Association had to make in order to ensure the support of the State Department of Education and the passage of the bill.
The Idaho Speech-Language Hearing Association was successful in working with all of the stakeholders in the process, including the hearing aid dealers and the State Department of Education. The bill also made it through the entire legislative process in a little over one monthan impressive feat for such comprehensive and detailed legislation. The ASHA State Policy Unit provided technical assistance including the review of numerous draft bills and the submission of favorable language. Congratulations to the Idaho Speech Language Hearing Association!!
Speech and Hearing Services Act Passes the Full Senate!!!
March 23, 2005
Our licensure bill was presented to the full Senate today. We needed a simple majority for the bill to pass. The vote was 27 yes votes to 5 no votes. The next step is that the bill will be forwarded to the Governor for his signature. It looks like May will truly be Better Speech and Hearing Month in Idaho.
Our licensure law will become effective on July 1, 2005, at the beginning of the State’s fiscal year. The Bureau of Occupational Licensing will be forwarded names of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists as the initial members of the new licensure Board. The Board including Speech-Language Pathologists, Audiologists, Hearing Aid Dealers and Fitters, and an at large member will begin the process of writing the administrative rules that will more specifically detail licensure rules and regulations.
We will keep you updated as the process continues. We’d like to send a huge thank you to everyone for all of your hard work and support in this process.
Joanne & Joe
March 17,2005
The Idaho Senate Health and Welfare Committee held a hearing and heard testimony on H. 247, The Speech and Hearing Services Practice Act. Two hours of discussion ensued and many questions were asked about the makeup of the board, grandfathering, scope of practice, not-for-profit entities, and other issues. A number of ISHA members gave very helpful testimony and our attorney, Jeremy Pisca, did a masterful job of pulling it all together and answering objections. In the end, the committee members voted to send the bill to the Senate floor with a "do pass" recommendation. Only one committee member voted against it, Elliot Werk- Democrat. He later e-mailed me saying that he was not opposed to it; he just had more questions, especially about unfair competition and the "non-profit entities" language that was removed from the original hearing aid dealers and fitters law. Thank you all for contacting members of the committee to voice your opinions. The floor vote will likely be at the end of next week. Please contact your Senators to urge their support of H. 247. It is very easy to use www.legislature.idaho.gov
Joanne
March 13, 2005
According to our attorney/lobbyist, Jeremy Pisca, our bill is on the third reading calendar in the house. Jeremy anticipates that the bill will go before the entire House for a vote sometime this next week. If it passes there, then we begin the process again in the Senate. Please refer to “How a Bill becomes a Law” on the ISHA website at www.idahosha.org and stay posted for more updates.
Joanne
House Bill 247, the Speech and Hearing Services Act, was presented to the House Health and Welfare Committee Friday afternoon, March 4th. We had the support of the Idaho School Board Association, the Idaho School Administrators Association, and the Department of Education. Also present, but not testifying was the Director of the Idaho Hospital Association, and a representative of the Idaho Education Association.
The Bill has passed the House Health and Welfare Committee; however, the Committee made minor amendments to the bill as presented. The bill will go to the amending order in the house before it is sent to the full House for consideration. After their review, and hopefully approval, we will repeat the process in the Senate.
Thank you to everyone who contacted their legislators and the House Health and Welfare Committee. The Committee members commented on how active we had been with the number of contacts they had received regarding this bill.
Watch your e-mail and the ISHA website at www.idahosha.org for more details as they become available.
Joanne Larsen
Co-chair, Licensure Committee
March 1, 2005
Hello everyone,
Our presentation of the Speech and Hearing Services Act to the House Health and Welfare Committee has been moved from Wednesday to Friday, March 4, at 1:30. I will send more details regarding where in the Capitol this will happen when Jeremy sends it to me.
Cindy, Rachelle, Jeremy, Mr. Hales (legal representation for the Bureau of Occupational Licensing), and I met this afternoon to discuss concerns from the Idaho School Board Association and the Idaho Association of School Administrators. I will defer to Cindy for details as I was unable to attend the entire meeting.
We continue to move forward in our pursuit of licensure and will keep you updated.
Joanne
February 7, 2005
1. LICENSURE: Hearing Aid Dealers and Fitters Board - The last few weeks have been exciting and eventful. Our goal of licensure for SLP and AUD is in sight. Our SPEECH AND HEARING SERVICES PRACTICE ACT has been rewritten to fit with other practice acts under the Bureau of Occupational Licenses. The Bureau of Occupational Licenses has a long tradition of protecting the health, safety, and welfare of hearing impaired consumers. The Bureau of Occupational Licenses also oversees licensure of psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapy counselors, optometrists, nursing home administrators, and others. Under the Bureau of Occupational Licenses we will have an independent licensure board. The old Hearing Aid Dealers and Fitters board will be abolished, along with its debt. Our new fees will only be $100. The decision to be under the Bureau of Occupational Licenses instead of the Board of Medicine was made to respect the Bureau of Occupational Licenses desire to continue their mission of consumer protection as well as concern for possible negative scenarios if Audiologists pulled out of oversight of all hearing aid sales. Audiologists will not need to take the written or practical hearing aid dealers exam. Under the Board of Medicine we would have had higher fees and been an advisory board instead of an independent board. The new board will consist of 3 SLP’s, 2 Aud, 1 HAD and 1 consumer. This gives a balance of 3 speech and 3 hearing members, with the majority being SLP’s.
2. SCHOOL BASED SERVICES: The ISHA Licensure committee, in concert with ASHA advisors, school based SLP’s, ISU faculty, and others, has prepared a counter proposal for the Idaho Association of School Boards and School Administrators. Thank you to all who have offered comments and personal perspectives. We have read and considered all e-mails and we apologize for the inability to respond to each one. The school board association desires to lower educational standards for SLP’s to fill SLP shortages. ISHA's counter proposal regarding the use of paraprofessionals fully supports the same standard we have tried to uphold for many years. It allows for adequate supervision of aides by qualified SLP’s. We must stay involved in this dialogue to have a voice in protecting Idaho's most vulnerable citizens--the children who receive special services. Our outline of appropriate services by qualified practitioner will keep children from being harmed by inadequate services. We all know SLP’s close the gap between language and learning and daily change lives for the better.
3. IMASH CONVENTION: I hope you have all registered for the IMASH 2005 Convention in Ogden, Utah March 9-12 at the Eccles Conference Center. Go to www.robertcraven.com/IMASH.htm for more information. The host hotel is the Ogden Marriot 1-888-825-3163. Our keynote speaker is Dr. Michael Ballam. His topic is music, cognition, and creativity. We have many great speakers lined up on cochlear implants, multicultural issues, aphasia, workload-caseload, forensic audiology, current vestibular topics, roundtable discussions, a live auction, a college bowl game, state association lunches, and much more. Don't miss out on a great educational and networking opportunity! Earn up to 1.7 CEU's for only $150. Handouts will be available on the IMASH website 2 weeks prior to the convention. Remember to print them before coming to Ogden. Please support ISHA's financial contribution to put on this regional conference.
January 29, 2005
On Thursday, January 27, Jody O’Donnell, Kim Ennis, Brenda Malepeai, and I participated in a teleconference with Janet Deppe, Director, State Education Policy, at ASHA. She had requested through Cindy Olsen, our president to have a three to four people participate in this conference. The purpose of the call was to gain information to assist ASHA in determining which states are most vulnerable for lowering standards for speech-language pathologists in the schools. ASHA will identify which states of the will receive support from ASHA as part of their focused initiative this year.
Janet shared that local school districts across the country are having difficulty finding and hiring experienced, quality supportive services, which includes Speech-Language Pathologists. Under IDEA 2004, states may choose to lower standards. Janet indicated that most states require a Master’s degree, some states required CCC, and a very few have Bachelor’s level SLPs in the school districts. She further stated that many school districts state “unreasonable standards” as the cause for the shortage of qualified SLPs.
Letters of Authorization (LOA) were discussed. One concern addressed is that although the requirements are that a Masters Degree in Speech-Language Pathology be obtained in three years, there have been incidents of a district firing someone after three years who has not met the Masters Degree requirement to re-hire them a few months later under a second Letter of Authorization. Another scenario discussed was that after three years some people with an Letter of Authorization who have not yet obtained the Masters Degree will move to a different district to begin the process again.
Janet asked if there were any known state wide efforts for districts to hire qualified Speech-Language Pathologists. To our knowledge this has not been used as a recruitment strategy. She also asked about the number of Bachelor degreed staff currently hired in Idaho schools, the number of private contractors who contract services with school districts, the rates that contractors are requesting from districts, as well as the pay to the staff serving these contracts, the number of emergency waivers and Letter of Authorization‘s in Idaho, and the number of Educational Specialists currently serving as Speech-Language Pathologists in Idaho. She also asked if we had a lobbyist for issues other than licensure, and how, if needed, we would mobilize our members on short notice for example, when an issue is before the legislature that would impact our professions. We did not have specific information regarding many of these questions. If any one has specific information please let me know and I will pass it on to Janet and the rest of our members.
Brenda reported that ISU has approximately 30 Masters Degree graduates in Speech-Language Pathology annually. She estimated that 60% of those graduates stay in Idaho with about ¼ going to Idaho school districts.
At the end of the 90 minute conference call, Janet stated that it would take several weeks to interpret the data she had collected from all the states involved in these teleconferences. She will contact us with data when this process is completed. After the data has been compiled, ASHA will identify those states most vulnerable for lowering standards and provide tiered support based on the vulnerability to a state. This support could include resources, testimony from ASHA, on site work, training for staff at ASHA, financial assistance, or other options depending on ASHA’s recommendations; however, Idaho would need to be identified as one of the top most vulnerable states.
We also discussed that the Idaho School Board Association (ISBA) has indicated that if we are unable to reach a compromise proposal that they would be willing to testify against our licensure bill. In addition, the School Board Administrators Association has indicated that they may lobby against licensure if an agreement is not met. After sending a draft of our licensure bill to Janet and giving her the time line we are facing for introduction of the bill to this sessions legislature she had the following response:
I will send her response as soon as I receive it next week.
On other fronts, I have received many responses regarding the ISBA’s counter proposal options. Overwhelmingly the responses have stated that support of a Bachelors level is not acceptable. Many members have asked if there are other options available. I spoke with Cindy and Jeremy on Friday, and will draft a counter proposal for the ISBA given your responses and concerns with the counter proposal. It will be sent at a separate time so that I can get Cindy, Joe, and Jeremy to review the proposal first. Please check your e-mail or the ISHA website frequently for the most current information as there will be limited response time available based on our current legislative deadlines.
ASHA had forwarded three states that currently use Bachelor degreed SLPs in the schools with specific contact information. Kim Ennis, Jody O’Donnell, and Brenda Malepeai are contacting the three states mentioned. An update will be sent as soon as I have received summaries of their phone contacts.
Dr. David Sorensen, Department Chair, Communication Sciences and Disorders and Education of the Deaf at ISU, wrote a letter of his non support for lowering the standards to a Bachelor Degree. His letter, in part stated that the Bachelor level individuals are:
For those of us who are not employed by school districts NCLB refers to the “No Child Left Behind” act. Section 5 specifies the permitted duties for paraprofessionals with subsection f defining supervision as follows:
“Provide instructional services ONLY under the direct supervision of a certified teacher.
A note at the top of the page I received during our last meeting with the ISBA indicates that implementations in place for Idaho are in italics. This will be included in my counter proposal.
On Friday, January 28, Cindy and Jeremy met with the Bureau of Occupational Licensing to review our proposed joint legislation. I was able to attend only the last 10-15 minutes and will, therefore, defer to Cindy to send a summary of that meeting. As soon as I receive an updated version of the bill I will forward it to George to post on the website.
Please send correspondence to ishalicensure@hotmail.com and check the ISHA website at idahosha.org.
January 25, 2005
At the request of the Idaho School Board Association (ISBA) we met this morning to discuss concerns from our proposal that was sent out on January 5, 2005. Their primary concerns are based on item 4 on page 3 that outlines activities outside the job responsibilities for a speech/language pathology aide. It is their position that this is more restrictive than what is currently available to the districts. After much discussion we have two options to present:
1. Use Letter of Authorization (LOA) or the alternate route of emergency certification. For those who may be unfamiliar with the LOA, it is currently used for districts that are unable to find a “qualified” (Master’s level) SLP. They may hire a person with a Bachelor’s degree with the commitment by both the district and the employee that the employee is working towards their Masters in Speech/Language Pathology and will have it completed within three years. The plans are reviewed annually. There was some discussion about setting a sunset date for this option, but concern was expressed that there still may not be enough Master’s level SLPs to fill the need.
2. Master’s level or higher to supervise with a Bachelor’s degree person in the district with revisions to the responsibilities based on the supervisor’s judgment after the initial 90 day intense supervision period. The ratio of 3:1 would be maintained for supervisor to supervisee.
In the meantime, we are looking into what other states have done, coordinating a conference call with ASHA, requesting your input on the options, and finding more information regarding the possibility of student loans being paid a portion each year for a Master’s level person to serve underserved areas.
Please review these proposals and send your responses to ishalicensure@hotmail.com by 8:00 am on Friday, January 28, 2005, to be included in the response for the ISHA board to review. Sending attachments in Word would make the forwarding and copying process more efficient since we have such a short time line.
a. A mandatory supervisor’s training would be completed by all SLPs who would like the opportunity to participate. The curriculum would be determined by a committee including ISHA members, ISBA members, Department of Ed members, Board of Ed members, ISU staff (ISBA proposed this as a potential home base for the program, but that is still to be determined.)
b. Contracting with private practices, hospitals, etc. was also discussed.
2. Dr. Green suggested that we contact WAMI (Washington, Montana, Idaho) to determine if they would provide partial student loan forgiveness for each year an SLP serves in a rural area. He referred us to Karen McGee for additional information. Karen’s background is in Speech/Language Pathology.
3. I offered ISHA’s support and my own to work in a committee to assure that training and solutions would be acceptable to all concerned.
4. A proposal has been forwarded to Jeremy, our attorney, to the ISHA board, and to ASHA for comments. This will be posted on the website and e-mailed to the group list that ISHA has once responses are made.
On another note, we are looking for volunteers to meet with legislators in every district in the state. More information will be available after this Friday, the 7th. If you are interested in participating in this process, or have suggestions or comments regarding the above proposal please e-mail me at ishalicensure@hotmail.com .
I will be confirming that I have the most recent draft of the licensure bill and then post it on the website. I’ll send an e-mail with the address and let you know when it has been posted.
Please share this e-mail with your colleagues so that we can contact as many people as possible.
Thank you to everyone for your support and interest in licensure.
February 18, 2004
Cindy Olsen, Joe Seitz, Shannon O'Connor, and I met with the State Board of Medicine. We will be working with them towards a licensure bill in the 2005 legislative session. It was the opinion of the executive director, assistant director and attorney that this is an obtainable goal. Although much of the foundation has been laid, there is still more to do in this process. We have another meeting scheduled with the Board of Medicine on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 at 8:30 am at their office. They encouraged us to invite as many people as are interested in participating in the process. Representation from the school population will be important. In the meantime, we are pursuing an attorney who will represent our interest with the Board of Medicine and assist with writing the act as well as the rules. The four of us will be contacting PT, OT, RT associations to find out who they had assist with their practice acts as possible references. It is helpful to have an attorney who is familiar with the process if possible. Hopefully there will be more information available at the convention in March.
We are continuing to work with the Department of Education in an ongoing process to find a win-win solution to the licensure/certification issue. I have heard from a number of school based clinicians who feel very strongly that all SLPs and audiologists should be licensed in this state.
We need more input from throughout the state, but especially North Idaho. If you are interested or know of someone who lives in that region please forward the names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses to me at ishalicensure@hotmail.net
Thanks again to the many people who have worked so hard to bring us this far during the past year.
February 11, 2004
We have received the support of Representative Anne Rydalch, from Eastern Idaho, for our efforts to obtain licensure. Representative Rydalch has agreed to have her name included as a sponsor of the bill.
February 5, 2004
Representative Margaret Henbest met with Joanne Larsen & Cindy Olsen Monday morning regarding the draft licensure bill that was written by the licensure committee earlier this year. Representative Henbest has agreed to forward the draft to legislative services for review. They will review the draft for any legal issues, write the bill in the language used by the State of Idaho for bills/laws, and return it to Representative Henbest. She indicated that she would begin sharing the proposed bill at that time.
We are in the process of contacting the State Department of Education, Idaho Education Association, State Board of Occupational Licenses, Idaho Hospital Association, and the State Board of Medicine.
If you have questions, suggestions about other agencies that may need to be contacted or would like to help please contact: