Washington Revised Code Title 28A. Common School Provisions § 28A.410.271. Washington professional educator standards board--Standards for educational interpreters

(a) “Educational interpreters” means school district employees, whether certificated or classified, providing sign language interpretation, transliteration, or both, and further explanation of concepts introduced by the teacher for students who are deaf, deaf-blind, or hard of hearing.

(b) “Educational interpreter assessment” means an assessment that includes both written assessment and performance assessment that is offered by a national organization of professional sign language interpreters and transliterators, and is designed to assess performance in more than one sign system or sign language.

(c) “Interpretation” means conveying one language in the form of another language.

(d) “Transliteration” means conveying one language in a different modality of the same language.

(a) Adopt standards for educational interpreters and identify and publicize educational interpreter assessments that are available and meet the requirements in this section; and

(b) Establish a performance standard for each educational interpreter assessment for the purposes of this section, defining what constitutes a minimum assessment result.

(3)(a) Except as otherwise provided by this section, by the beginning of the 2016-17 school year, educational interpreters who are employed by school districts must have successfully achieved the performance standard established by the professional educator standards board on one of the educational interpreter assessments identified by the board. Evaluations and assessments for educational interpreters for which the board has not established a performance standard may be obtained as supplemental demonstrations of professional proficiency but may not be used as evidence of compliance with this subsection (3)(a).

(b) An educational interpreter who has not successfully achieved the performance standard required by (a) of this subsection may provide or continue providing educational interpreter services to students for one calendar year after receipt of his or her most recent educational interpreter assessment results, or eighteen months after completing his or her most recent educational interpreter assessment, whichever period is longer, if he or she can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the employing school or school district, ongoing efforts to successfully achieve the required performance standard. In making a determination under this subsection (3)(b), the employing school or school district may consult with the professional educator standards board. For purposes of this subsection (3)(b), “educational interpreter” includes persons employed as educational interpreters before the 2016-17 school year.