By Naishtat H.B. No. 3629 76R8516 KKA-D A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-1 AN ACT 1-2 relating to minimum salaries for interpreters employed in public 1-3 schools to provide interpreting services to students who are deaf 1-4 or hard of hearing. 1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-6 SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 22, Education Code, is 1-7 amended by adding Section 22.006 to read as follows: 1-8 Sec. 22.006. MINIMUM SALARY FOR INTERPRETERS. (a) Except 1-9 as provided by Subsection (b), a school district shall pay each 1-10 interpreter employed by the district to provide interpreting 1-11 services to district students who are deaf or hard of hearing a 1-12 monthly salary equal to not less than the following percentage of 1-13 the minimum monthly salary required under Section 21.402 to be paid 1-14 to a classroom teacher or full-time librarian with no experience, 1-15 as appropriate based on the interpreter's level of certification: 1-16 LEVEL OF CERTIFICATION PERCENTAGE OF TEACHER'S OR 1-17 LIBRARIAN'S SALARY 1-18 No certification 60 percent 1-19 Level I 71 percent 1-20 Level II 77 percent 1-21 Level III 83 percent 1-22 Level IV 88 percent 1-23 Level V 95 percent 1-24 (b) The minimum monthly salary required under Subsection (a) 2-1 is based on employment of an interpreter under a 10-month contract 2-2 under which the interpreter provides the number of days of service 2-3 required to be provided by an educator under Section 21.401. A 2-4 school district shall pay an interpreter employed under a different 2-5 arrangement an adjusted salary that proportionately reflects the 2-6 different number of days of service provided by the interpreter. 2-7 (c) In this section, an interpreter's level of certification 2-8 is determined according to the level of the interpreter's 2-9 certification issued by the Board for Evaluation of Interpreters or 2-10 the Texas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing or other 2-11 comparable certification approved by the commission. 2-12 SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 1999-2000 2-13 school year. 2-14 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the 2-15 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 2-16 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-17 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-18 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, 2-19 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its 2-20 passage, and it is so enacted.