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.