Legislative Updates

TSHA's First District Legislative Day was a Success!

On Friday, May 2, 2008, TSHA members visited Texas legislators in their home districts to celebrate May is Better Hearing and Speech Month. The focus was on building relationships with Senators and Representatives during this non-legislative year in an effort to increase our visibility with Texas lawmakers. Participants shared information about the professions of speech-language pathology and audiology, educating legislators about who we are and what we do for the citizens of Texas.

TSHA was well represented by members from various areas of the professions and from cities across the state. Professionals, both speech-language pathologists and audiologist, from ECI, private practice, school districts, in-patient hospitals, and universities took time out of their schedules to build relationships with their legislators. TSHA members shared the following written testimonies about their experiences:

El Paso
Laura Hazelton and seven of her colleagues at the El Paso Rehabilitation Center organized a lunch appointment with Senator Eliot Shapleigh. Hazelton stated, “We had a very nice lunch with Senator Shapleigh…He was friendly, attentive, and interested in what we had to say… The Senator took notes and we trust that our concerns were heard.” Alline Healy, another participant with this group, stated “Our meeting was very worthwhile. What a great way to celebrate Better Hearing and Speech Month!”

Students from the University of Texas El Paso, under the direction of Bess Fjordbak, gathered together to visit their Senators and Representatives. Although the legislators were not available to see them, the group was able to leave messages with office staff and schedule a face-to-face appointment for the following week. Bess stated, “We salvaged the day by going for some ice-cream and planning strategy for our next outing.”

Austin
Anna Fox, NSSLHA sponsor at Texas State University, and Lavelle Carlson, President of the Austin Area Association of Speech-Language Pathologists, joined efforts and stopped by several legislator’s offices informing them of the services provided by speech-language pathologists and audiologists.

Lubbock
Judith Keller, TSHA President, had a delightful visit with Representative Delwin Jones in Lubbock. Judith commented, “I learned a lot about Texas politics from a legislator who has been around for a long time! And I got to talk a little bit about TSHA.”

Plano
Meredith Moore and Katie Stoneman of Plano visited with the office staff of Senator Florence Shapiro. Moore shared, “It was a lot of fun getting out there and promoting our wonderful professions.”

San Antonio
Barbara Samfield and April Smith, of San Antonio, had a successful visit with Senator Jeff Wentworth. Samfield shared, “When asked if he had a relative or friend who had ever received speech services, Senator Wentworth stated, ‘no,’ but indicated that he knew someone who had a child with autism. Senator Wentworth was also surprised to hear about the shortage of speech-language pathologists. April and I found him to be an attentive listener, and receptive to our concerns on a late Friday afternoon visit to his office.”

Grand Prairie
Arron Preston, a speech-language pathologist at Mansfield ISD, and his wife Elizabeth, an audiologist, were quite the duo on District Legislative Day. They made three stops, with the final visit ending in a lengthy meeting with Representative Kirk England. Arron commented, “We spent over an hour discussing the services we provide and the issues we face in our professions… Representative England provided some keen insight as to how the political process works, encouraging us to be persistent, persistent, persistent to create change. In addition, he advised us to ‘put a face’ with our cause and complimented us on beginning that process by making our visits.”

Dallas
Heather MacFadyen, Grassroots Development Co-Chair, visited with Representative Dan Branch in Dallas. Representative Branch stated, “I knew about vacancies in nurse positions, but I did not realize that there was a similar situation with speech-language pathology and audiology vacancies in the public schools.” Heather shared, “He asked me if I would help him with his campaign this year. All in all it was a fabulous visit!”

Thanks to everyone who participated in TSHA’s first District Legislative Day. These testimonies are evidence that together we do have a powerful voice. We must be heard!

TSHA 2008-2009 LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES

• Introduce legislation to ensure any future teacher salary increases in the public schools will also include all speech-language pathologists and audiologists practicing in the public schools.
  This is an initiative to ensure all SLP's and Aud's receive any pay raise provided to teachers, and not leave it to individual district decision.
  
  
• Introduce legislation to provide "loan repayment" for any graduate who chooses to practice in the public school setting, or any doctoral student choosing to join the Communication Sciences and Disorders faculty of a Texas college or university. Loan repayment would be based on service over a five year period.
  This is an initiative to help alleviate the significant shortage of speech-language pathologists and audiologists practicing in the public schools and the shortage of doctoral level faculty in our communicative disorders programs.
  
  
• Introduce legislation to exempt from professional liability SLP's and Aud's performing "volunteer" services.
  This is an initiative to exempt from liability professionals who volunteer their time in community/church etc. speech & hearing screening programs.
  
  
• Support legislation to be filed by "Dyslexia Practitioners and Therapists" seeking a Title Act License.
  This is a bill to license Dyslexia Teachers & Therapists has come close to passing the legislature in each of the last two sessions. TSHA has worked with them to modify their licensing effort to make the following changes: change name from "Academic Language Therapists" to “Dyslexia Practitioners & Therapists;" limit the scope of practice to the practice of “multisensory structured language education”, a program for the treatment of Reading, Writing and Spelling for individuals with Dyslexia and other Dyslexia related disorders. These changes identify more specifically what they do.
  
  
• Support legislation which will improve insurance coverage and reimbursement for clients receiving speech-language pathology and audiology services.
  This is an initiative to eliminate the insurance “hassle factor” which the insureds and their providers must endure.
  
  
• Monitor and make appropriate changes to any legislation that will affect the professions of speech-language pathology and/or audiology.