Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) will offer an amendment to S. 1177, the Every Child Achieves Act, which could result in an increased role for audiologists and speech-language pathologists in delivering literacy services in schools. The United States Senate began debating S. 1177 on Tuesday, July 7, 2015, and will continue to debate the bill for approximately two weeks. Your help is needed today to ensure that the Warren amendment is adopted as part of the debate on S. 1177.
Background
ASHA has advocated for specialized instructional support personnel (including audiologists and speech-language pathologists), as appropriate, to be inserted in several locations in the literacy section of S. 1177. If enacted as amended, these changes would explicitly allow audiologists and speech-language pathologists to have an expanded role in support of the reading curriculum in schools. This could include access to professional development and more opportunities to collaborate with other school personnel on the delivery of literacy instruction.
If the Senate passes S. 1177, it would enter into negotiations with the House of Representatives to resolved differences with H.R. 5, the Student Success Act, its version of a No Child Left Behind (NCLB)/ Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) re-write. A successfully conferenced bill would then go to President Obama for his signature into law and the formal replacement of NCLB.
ASHA Resources
For additional information related to legislative action, please contact Ingrid Lusis, ASHA's director of federal and political advocacy at ilusus@asha.org.
