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Two slightly
different bills have been introduced in the House that would require
all Missouri educational institutions to treat American Sign
Language as a "foreign language" for credit granting and receiving
purposes, as well as for meeting foreign language requirements for
admission and graduation from Missouri educational institutions.
Those two bills are HB 297 (sponsored by Representative Stevenson)
and HB 310 (sponsored by Representative Walker). The Missouri
Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing prefers the language in
HB 310 as it includes several concepts that HB 297 does not include.
For example, HB 310 explicitly recognizes ASL as an "autonomous,
unique, visual-gestural language with its own syntax, rhetoric,
grammar and morphology" whereas HB 297 contains no such provision.
Both of these bills were referred to the House
Education Committee on 1/30/03, but as of yet no public hearing has
been scheduled for either bill. Advocates who wish to see an ASL for
foreign language credit bill passed this year should contact the
chair of the House Education Committee (Representative Jane
Cunningham, 573-751-1186 (V), 573-526-9852 (FAX), E-Mail:
jcunnin@mail.state.mo.us) and request that the House Education
Committee hold a public hearing for these bills as soon as possible.
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