Attention Speech-Language Pathologists in Maryland, 

MSHA needs your help immediately.

Please read the information below and take action in the next 24 hours.

In 2021, Maryland enacted the Blueprint legislation in an attempt to improve the quality of education for our students. This legislation offers a $10,000 salary supplement to educators with National Board Teaching Certification (NBTC) and a $17,000 salary supplement to those with NBTC in high needs schools. 

SLPs do not have access to NBTC because Pearson (the private company that does the testing) does not offer a category for SLPs. 

Senate Bill 791 and House Bill 883 are currently up for debate in the 2023 Maryland General Assembly. MSHA President, Mary Casper, and MSHA Public Policy Team Member, Megan Miskowski, offered written testimony in support of the bills. On March 1, Mary and Megan testified in person in front of the Senate Energy, Education, and Environment Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee. 

After the in-person testimony, MSHA submitted an additional letter to the Committees asking for an amendment that would recognize the Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) issued by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) as an equivalent qualification to the NBTC for the salary supplements, rather than needing to undergo additional approval by the Professional Standards and Teacher Education Board (PSTEB) as is proposed in these bills.

MSHA needs you to ACT NOW.

Please compose a letter of support for SB 791 / HB 883 and send emails to your elected leaders. It should take you 10 minutes or less to let your voice be heard, even if you are not employed in a school setting. Sample letter verbiage can be found below.

Send any questions you may have to president@mdslha.org. Thank you for supporting MSHA's advocacy efforts on this urgent matter. 

Email #1:

• To: Chairman Brian Feldman, Senate Energy, Education, and Environment Committee
• cc: Committee Members (copy and paste into the cc field from this document)
• RE: SB 791 - Support with Amendment 

Email #2:

• To: Chair Vanessa Atterbeary, House Ways and Means Committee 
• cc: Committee Members (copy and paste into the cc field from this document)
• RE: HB 883 - Support with Amendment 

My name is XXX. I am a Speech-Language Pathologist in Maryland, working at XXX and residing at XXX. 

I am writing in support of SB 791 / HB 883 with amendment, and I urge you to vote in favor of this important legislation. 

Speak to the following key points (Put in your own words as you like):

1. Speech-Language Pathologists provide direct instruction to students in Maryland schools. SLPs are responsible for IEP goals.
2. SLPs represent the third largest staff shortage in Maryland schools currently. As a result, local jurisdictions rely on contractual arrangements to fill open positions, resulting in multi- million-dollar expenditures each school year. Access to the same salary supplements from the Blueprint legislation for SLPs would improve recruitment and retention for directly hired SLPs, thus saving significant money for each jurisdiction. SLPs are uniquely positioned to reduce the fiscal note for SB 791 / HB 883 through the replacement of contractors with directly hired staff. 
3. The Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) issued by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is an equally rigorous, nationally recognized credential to the National Board Teaching Certification (NBTC). 
4. The Maryland Speech-Language-Hearing Association (MSHA) offered an amendment to SB 791 / HB 883 to include the CCC as a credential giving access to salary supplements in Maryland schools. 

Offer a personal story, if applicable, here.

Thank you for considering my feedback. I ask you to vote in favor of this crucial legislation that will positively impact educational opportunities for students in Maryland. 

Sincerely, 

XXX