Important Advocacy Updates

We appreciate our members and have intended all advocacy communication for current SCSHA members. If you received this information from a colleague and are not a current SCSHA member, please consider joining SCSHA today. Everything we do in advocacy on behalf of SLPs and Audiologists in South Carolina requires time, effort, and funding. We are at risk of not being able to continue to financially support advocacy, which would have a crippling impact on professionals regardless of their membership status in SCSHA. Thank you to our members for trusting and supporting SCSHA!

Keep your eye out for upcoming CEU opportunities with SCSHA!
To help us meet our financial goals, we are working with volunteer presenters to offer live virtual webinars for CEUs on topics that matter to you. We've been working on finding speakers on stuttering, professional burn out, AAC, literacy, and other topics. Keep SCSHA in mind as you plan your CEU budget this year. We need all the support we can get. These CEUs will be available for ASHA CEUs unless otherwise stated.

April 30, 2025 Advocacy Update

SC House Bill H3196 Educator Assistance Act

We have good news on H3196! As long as the governor signs this bill, it will be effective July 1, 2025. Highlights of this new statute include:

Continuing Contract status allows for permanent educator certificate with proof of annual professional development
Districts must adopt policies to address the option of donating to a leave bank for accrued leave over 60 days
Unused leave in excess of 90 days can be reimbursed at a rate equal to that of substitute pay (or other amount as determined appropriate by the district’s school board)
Contracts must include a minimum salary schedule for the coming school year.
Signed contracts may be withdrawn by written notice within 10 days of publishing the salary schedule for that upcoming school year without the withdrawal being considered a breach of contract
Of the 10 contracted days without students, 4 must be for professional development, 4 used for planning and conferences, and 2 for preparation of the opening of school (during which there is time that is self-directed and free from assigned meetings or training in order to…plan and prepare materials and spaces.

Our SCSHA members responded to a request to support this legislation along with the Palmetto State Teachers Association. Thank you to the members who helped communicate to their representatives how important this legislation is to you!

Link to H3196

H3974 Private Providers [in schools]

SC House Bill H3974 originally sought to enable private providers to provide outpatient services on school grounds, without a requirement for educational necessity, and required authorization and medical insurance billing for these services. Through SCSHA advocacy, the bill was significantly narrowed to be restricted to ABA providers of services for students with Autism spectrum disorder. The updated language of the school board model policy was also improved with much input from educators and school administrators. The amended bill better matched the requests heard in testimony during the public listening sessions of the SC Joint Citizens and Legislative Committee on Children (JCLCC) in the last several years, and better protected access to a free appropriate public education (FAPE). The language of the amended bill will not be updated on the statehouse website until it is passed on the House floor, which might not occur until January 2026. It will still need to be heard in the Senate during the remainder of the legislative session, which ends in May 2026.

Due to the request of state legislators, there is ongoing discussion with the House Education and Public Works committee on the possibility of a second bill, separate from H3974, that would be specific to SLP, OT, and PT services possibly as "outpatient therapy on school grounds." This hybrid concept is not the same as the contractors in schools, who are typically employed by private practices. These contractors provide school-based services under IDEA. While we don't want to cause confusion, it is important that everyone understands the discussion is about an entirely different type of service - outpatient therapy - outside of a clinic - at school. Access to a free appropriate public education is priority #1, and there are many considerations for space, equipment, liability, impact on education, and billing. The insurance representatives have continued to agree with our concern that this is currently not a billable service.

We do not have a final opinion for, or against, the concept of outpatient therapy on school grounds since the details of this model are being written in real time. Thank you to everyone who took a few minutes to fill out the member survey on "OPtxSG" (outpatient therapy on school grounds). Final survey responses will be reviewed at the end of the business day on May 5, 2025.

SCSHA is grateful to have a chance to engage in this discussion with our legislators, focus on what children and patients in all settings need, and share how our profession can help meet those needs.

Link to H3974

View the current Public Policy Agenda below: