HBA-LCA H.B. 3629 76(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3629 By: Naishtat Public Education 4/20/1999 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In the 1997-98 school year, nearly 60 percent of deaf or hard of hearing students in the Regional Day School Program required a sign language interpreter. Currently, there is a shortage of qualified sign language interpreters in Texas' public schools, in part due to low salaries. H.B. 3629 establishes a minimum salary schedule for interpreters, calculated as a percentage of the minimum salary schedule for classroom teachers or librarians with no experience, and including the interpreter's level of certification, as issued by the Board for Evaluation of Interpreters or the Texas Commission the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, in the calculation. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 22, Education Code, by adding Section 22.006, as follows: Sec. 22.006. MINIMUM SALARY FOR INTERPRETERS. (a) Requires a school district, except as provided by Subsection (b), to pay a minimum monthly salary to an interpreter employed to provide interpreting services to students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Provides that the minimum monthly salary is calculated according to a specified percentage of the salary of a classroom teacher or full-time librarian with no experience, and according to the interpreter's certification level. Sets forth the salary schedule. (b) Provides that the minimum monthly salary schedule set forth in Subsection (a) is based on a 10-month contract under which the interpreter provides a certain number of days of service under Section 21.401, Education Code (Minimum Service Required). Provides that an interpreter employed under a different arrangement shall be paid a salary proportionate to the different number of days of service provided. (c) Provides that an interpreter's level of certification for the purposes of this section is determined by the level of certification issued by the Board for Evaluation of Interpreters or the Texas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (commission) or other comparable certification approved by the commission. SECTION 2. Provides that this Act applies beginning with the 1999-2000 school year. SECTION 3. Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage.