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On September 1, 1999, a new teacher certification rule became effective that affects
the speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in South Dakota possessing a teaching certificate
with a speech and hearing endorsement. This rule change speaks to school and other
educational setting SLPs with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Sciences (BS) degree
that are employed in a setting that requires a South Dakota teaching certificate with a
speech and hearing endorsement.
The South Dakota teacher certification rule requirements for school speech and hearing
clinicians currently state:
24:16:10:05. Birth to age 21 school speech/language pathologist education program.
A birth to age 21 school speech/language pathologist education program shall require the
following at the master-degree level from an accredited speech language pathologist
program…
In order to meet the requirements of
24:05:16:17
(4), the year 2020 is the date established by the South Dakota
Department of Education (DOE) for
the retraining of personnel to meet appropriate professional requirements for school SLPs.
This rule change does not effect a SLP with the MA degree as they are already in
compliance with the rules change.
The DOE has the obligation to detail the steps the state will take to upgrade SLPs to
the appropriate professional requirements, i.e. the master-degree level or comparable
requirements to the academic degree. The Department has the flexibility to determine
whether the acquisition of an academic degree, or some other comparable qualification
meets "appropriate professional requirements" for SLPs in South Dakota. A
workgroup comprised of speech therapist, higher education faculty, administration and the
Special Education Programs staff has developed this process.
SLPs that are affected by the rules change have been sent information
regarding the changes and process to become compliant. For more information you may visit our homepage http://www.state.sd.us/state/deca/special/
or contact Becky Cain at 605-773-3678 or via email at
rebecca.cain@state.sd.us.
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