By: Lori Colletti, MS, CCC-SLP, TSHA Vice President for Advocacy

The 89th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature Begins on January 14 2025, and TSHA is ready with a legislative agenda based on the concerns and priorities of our members and the people we serve. Our agenda focuses on supporting:  

1. Interstate Compact Bill – TSHA supports the passage of The Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact (ASLP-IC) in Texas, which facilitates the interstate practice of audiology and speech-language pathology while maintaining public protection. 

2. Telehealth – TSHA supports legislation and/or rules that provide for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology to be included in the authorized telehealth services list. 

3. Adequate Reimbursement – TSHA supports legislation that would allow the Texas Medicaid program to increase provider reimbursement rates as established by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to ensure access to high quality care across all settings.  

4. Manageable Workloads and Salary Increases – TSHA supports legislation and action that supports manageable workloads in all work settings. We support legislation that includes speech-language pathologists, assistant speech-language pathologists, and audiologists in any public school funding bill that will increase salaries for teachers and other professional staff. TSHA also provides resources for members to advocate for salary increases and professional recognition in all work settings.  

In addition to these priorities, TSHA monitors all bills that may impact our members with a focus on the following: 

Education 

• Legislation that promotes funding for public education as necessary to provide students with an adequate and equitable education as required by the Texas constitution; TSHA also supports adequate funding for higher education.

• Legislation that promotes adequate funding for special education programs by urging full funding of IDEA at the federal level and ensuring that existing state public education dollars are not reduced and/or rerouted (e.g., to private schools), even in the event that school voucher legislation is passed. 

• Efforts by the federal government, state government and local school districts to streamline and reduce duplication of excessive paperwork requirements thereby increasing availability of time for direct services to students. 

• Maintaining benefit retirement plans for active and retired education employees through the Teacher Retirement System. 

Healthcare 

• Legislation that mandates improved coverage for speech, language, hearing, and balance disorders through public and private insurers for habilitative and rehabilitative services. 

Regulatory 

• Legislation that ensures that the Department of Licensing and Regulation / Advisory Committee for Speech-‐Language Pathology and Audiology is empowered to protect the public by the efficient and effective regulation of the professions. 

• Legislation that protects consumers who have communication disorders and to ensure that speech-‐language   pathologists   and   audiologists   provide   the   highest   quality   evaluation, habilitation, and rehabilitation services. 

Audiology 

• Programs and/or legislation that supports early hearing detection and intervention. 

Stay tuned as The 89th Legislative Session gets underway! The voices of TSHA members are needed to support our legislative priorities!