HI SB2476

Authorizes early intervention services for children birth to age five who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind to include service providers and mentors fluent in American Sign Language, oral language specialists, ASL teachers for families, family-to-family support, and early intervention provider training.

Requires the Department of Health, Department of Education, and Executive Office on Early Learning to establish a 17-member working group to investigate resources, tools, and system improvements for supporting age-appropriate language development in deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind children from birth to age five.

Working group membership must include parents, deaf/hard of hearing individuals, credentialed teachers, early intervention specialists, audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and government representatives, with majority of non-parent members being deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind.

Working group shall examine parent resource guides, language assessment tools, data on language and literacy development, system-wide service improvements, and transition procedures from Department of Health services to Department of Education services at age three.

Working group must submit interim report by twenty days before the 2017 legislative session and final report by twenty days before the 2018 legislative session; working group terminates June 30, 2018.