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As we have
indicated before, 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, more than 6 weeks ago, but as of yet
no public hearing has been scheduled for either bill. When a bill
sits in a committee for a month and a half without a public hearing
being scheduled, it generally means that the chair of that committee
is hesitant to move the bill along in the legislative process.
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 urge that the House Education
Committee hold a public hearing for these bills as soon as possible.
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