117A 95th Legislative Session 615

2020 South Dakota Legislature

Senate Bill 117

AMENDMENT 117A FOR THE INTRODUCED BILL

Introduced by: Senator Nesiba

An Act to require the Department of Education to establish certain programs for children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing and to provide an appropriation.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of South Dakota:

Section 1. That § 13-33B-1 be AMENDED:

13-33B-1. Programs for deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children.

The Department of Education may shall establish a program and policy to be disseminated to all school districts and other local educational agencies which promote the education of children who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children and which recognizes the following:

(1) That deafness involves the most basic of human needs, the ability to communicate with other human beings. Many children who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children use, as their primary communication mode, American sign language, while others express and receive language through English‑based sign language, or orally and aurally, with or without visual signs or cues. Still others, typically young children who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children, lack any significant language skills. Deaf Children who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children require educational programs that provide appropriate, ongoing, and communicationally accessible educational opportunities. For the purposes of this chapter, communication mode and language refer to the individual child's communication mode or language, whether oral, manual, or a combination of oral and manual. The purpose of this chapter is to promote understanding of communication needs and not to favor any one particular communication mode or language over another;

(2) That children who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children shall have an education in which their unique communication mode is respected, utilized, and developed to an appropriate level of proficiency;

(3) That children who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children have an education in which special education teachers, psychologists, speech therapists, assessors, administrators, interpreters, and other personnel understand the unique nature of deafness and are specifically trained to work with children who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children and in which their special education teachers and interpreters are proficient in the primary language mode of those children;

(4) That children who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children have an education with a sufficient number of language mode peers who are of the same or approximately the same age and ability level and with whom the children can communicate directly, or as appropriate through the use of qualified interpreters;

(5) That parents of children who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children, people who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing people, teachers, and professionals trained in the area of education of the deaf assist in determining the extent, content, and purpose of this program;

(6) That children who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children have direct and appropriate access to all components of the educational process, including recess, lunch, and extracurricular social and athletic activities;

(7) That children who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children have programs in which their unique vocational needs are provided for, including appropriate research, curricula, programs, staff, and outreach;

(8) That a determination of the least restrictive environment as used in state and federal law takes into consideration the unique communication needs of children who are deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children as described in this chapter;

(9) The Department of Education shall take such steps as are necessary to implement this section, including, but not limited to, the development of written and other materials, the dissemination of said the information, and the provision of workshops, symposia, and other procedures to insure that the local educational agencies understand and implement the policy of this chapter.

Section 2. There is hereby appropriated from the general fund the sum of three hundred seventy thousand three hundred thirty-eight dollars ($370,338), or so much thereof as may be necessary, to the Department of Education, for purposes of promoting the education of children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Section 3. The secretary of the Department of Education shall approve vouchers and the state auditor shall draw warrants to pay expenditures authorized by this Act.

Section 4. Any amounts appropriated in this Act not lawfully expended or obligated by June 30, 2021 shall revert in accordance with the procedures prescribed in chapter 4-8.

Catchlines are not law. (§ 2-16-13.1) Underscores indicate new language.

Overstrikes indicate deleted language.