Senate Bill No. 480
(By Senators Bowman and Bailey)
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[Introduced February 14, 2000; referred to the Committee on
Government Organization; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact sections three and five, article
fourteen, chapter five of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating to
the commission for the deaf and hard-of-hearing; increasing
the membership of the committee to seventeen; altering the
membership to place the deaf and hard-of-hearing in the
majority; and granting the secretary rule-making capability
and the commissioner the authority to test interpreters for
certification and to collect and expend funds for that
purpose.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections three and five, article fourteen, chapter five
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 14. WEST VIRGINIA COMMISSION FOR THE DEAF AND
HARD-OF-HEARING.
§5-14-3. Continuation of commission; membership.
The West Virginia commission for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
is hereby continued within the department of health and human
resources consisting of fifteen seventeen persons, eight of whom
shall serve ex officio. The remaining members are appointed by the
governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The
commission shall meet no less than four times annually. All
meetings and activities held by the commission shall be attended by
at least two qualified interpreters who shall be hired at the
commission's expense or provided free of charge by agencies,
organizations or individuals willing to volunteer qualified
interpreters. The members are:
(1) The secretary, or his or her designee, of the department
of health and human resources; the commissioner, or his or her
designee, of the division of labor; the director, or his or her
designee, of the division of health; the state superintendent of
schools, or his or her designee, of the state board of education;
the director, or his or her designee, of the division of
rehabilitation; the director, or his or her designee, of the division of handicapped children's services in the division of
human services; the chairman, or his or her designee, of the
advisory council for the education of exceptional children; and the
superintendent, or his or her designee, of the West Virginia school
for the deaf and blind, all of whom serve ex officio; and
(2) Seven Nine persons appointed by the governor, at least
three five of whom are deaf or hard-of-hearing, one of whom is the
parent of a deaf child, one of whom is a certified teacher of
the hearing-impaired, one audiologist and one otolaryngologist. Of
the three five deaf people, at least two three shall be selected
from a list of four five people recommended by the board of the
West Virginia association of the deaf.
§5-14-5. Powers and duties of the commission; register of
hearing-impaired; duty to report to the commission;
census; information clearinghouse; coordination of
interpreters; outreach programs; seminars and
training sessions.
The commission shall maintain a complete register of persons
who are deaf or hard-of-hearing in the state. For each
hearing-impaired person, the register shall describe the condition
and cause of the hearing problem, the person's capacity for
education and industrial training and any other facts the commission considers valuable. Identifying information contained
in the register is confidential: Provided, That information
collected and maintained in the register will be available upon
request to other government agencies in order to facilitate
services to their hearing-impaired clients. Every health,
educational and social agency and physician or other medical
professional serving hearing-impaired individuals shall report to
the commission, in writing, the name, age and residence of persons
who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
In addition to the register, the commission is responsible for
conducting and maintaining a census of both the deaf and
hard-of-hearing populations in West Virginia. Such census shall
contain state, county and city figures.
The commission shall maintain a clearinghouse of information,
the purpose of which is to aid hearing-impaired persons and others
in obtaining appropriate services or information about such
services, including, but not limited to, education, communication
(including interpreters), group home facilities, independent living
skills, recreational facilities, employment, vocational training,
health and mental health services, substance abuse and other
services necessary to assure their ability to function in society.
The commission shall consult existing public and private agencies and organizations in compiling and maintaining the clearinghouse.
The commission shall establish, maintain and coordinate a
statewide service to provide courts, state and local legislative
bodies and others with a list of qualified and certified
interpreters for the deaf and a list of qualified and certified
teachers of American sign language. To establish and maintain
these lists the commission may accept the certification of the
National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and/or the state
established quality assurance evaluation.
The secretary of the department of health and human resources
shall promulgate rules pursuant to chapter twenty-nine-a of this
code for the state quality assurance evaluation, including the
establishment of required qualifications and ethical standards for
interpreters, the approval of interpreters, the monitoring and
investigation of interpreters and the suspension and revocation of
approvals. The commission may conduct national association of the
deaf interpreter evaluations and collect and expend funds with
regard thereto.
The commission shall develop an outreach program to
familiarize the public with the rights and needs of
hearing-impaired people and of available services.
The commission shall investigate the condition of the hearing-impaired in this state with particular attention to those
who are aged, homeless, needy, victims of rubella and victims of
abuse or neglect. It shall determine the means the state possesses
for establishing group homes for its hearing-impaired citizens and
the need for additional facilities. The commission shall also
determine the advisability and necessity of providing services to
the multihandicapped hearing-impaired.
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(NOTE: This bill provides for increasing the membership of the
commission to enhance participation, arranging the membership to
place the deaf and hard-of-hearing in the majority on the
commission, authorizing the commission to test interpreters for
certification, empowering the commission to collect and spend funds
for the testing process, and permitting the secretary of the
department of health and human resources to promulgate rules. This
bill came from the recommendations of the Performance Evaluation
Research Division 1999 audit.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)
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FINANCE COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
On page four, section five, line twenty-four, after the word
"to" by inserting the words "article three,".