It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of the passing of Paula Sargent.  According to FRID Historical Documents, she served as FRID President from 1993-1995.  She committed her life to serving the Deaf community and helping to grow interpreters and the interpreting profession.  Her death is a great loss to both the Deaf and interpreting communities here in Florida.  Below is Paula's obituary. 

SARGENT, Paula Marie passed on at the age of 70 on Monday, September 12th in Miami Lakes, Florida. She is survived by her husband, Charles K. King, her stepson, Charles R. King, her niece and nephew Brooke and Darren Touhy, her aunts, Barbara Dowling and Ruth Kennedy and many cousins. She was predeceased by her brother William Touhy who was a well-known teacher in Dade County Schools for thirty-nine years, her mother Eleanor Schoeberlien and her father Paul Grey.

Paula was a dedicated and loved teacher who began her career in Hawaii teaching deaf students. In 1984, she moved to Miami, Florida and began teaching sign language at Miami Dade College where she launched a very successful career building the Sign Language Interpreter Training Program. During the 1980s she was the President of the Florida Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. She also presented workshops all over the United States helping people master their interpreting skills.

Paula devoted her entire career to enhancing communication between the Deaf community and Hearing Community. She did this with passion, energy, professionalism, and innovativeness. She spent most of her life doing what she loved and made things better for the thousands of lives she touched. To assess the impact of Paula’s life one need only listen to her friends who are quick to affirm that she has truly enriched their lives. She will be deeply missed.

In the near future a celebration of her life will be held in Miami Lakes, Florida.

Today our final hopes for passing the Educational Interpreter Bill (as an amendment) vanquished.  It was a disappointing conclusion to months of hard work.  Here is a statement from Terri Schisler, chair of FRID's Interpreter Regulation Committee:

The Educational interpreter bill has hit a few roadblocks.  The bill stalled in committee last month; however, we were able to find another path to keep the bill active.  We had agreements to allow us to attach our bill to a teacher certification bill by amendment in the Senate.  When the bill came up, the amendment was ruled out of order.  We have exhausted all options this year with the session ending on Friday, March 11.  We will be reviewing our options for resubmitting the bill next year. 

The FRID Board would like to thank Terri Schisler and the entire Interpreter Regulation Committee for their hard work this year. Also, we want to acknowledge Gary Lieffers for his expertise in helping the bill get as far as it did.  Thank you to the Boards of FAD and FRID for working together on this and other legislation.  Lastly, and certainly not least, thank you to all the members who lent your support for this important work.

Update from Gary Lieffers, FAD/FRID Lobbyist:

SB432 (the bill we plan to amend to include the language from our bill) was placed on the Special Order Calendar for Wednesday. Now they have to get to it, add our language to it and send it to the House. The House reiterated to me again today, that they would pass it if it came over from the Senate.

We will have to look at tomorrows printed calendar. The Senate did not get to ANY of the Special Order Bills today, so we are in the back of the line. It could be Thursday before they get to it.

In any event, this is exciting news that, through SB432, our bill may survive, and pass!

Below is an update from Gary Lieffers on the Educational Interpreter Bill (to be amended to SB432/HB189):

The final two weeks of Session are not for the weak hearted. If you have been trying to keep up with the proceedings, you are probably frustrated with the lack of movement on anything related to getting our bill passed. Rest assured, as each day goes by, it goes faster and faster. The Senate moved on over 80 bills yesterday. During the last few days of Session, bills are known to go from the House to the Senate and back multiple times before there is agreement.

So, the Senate Special Order Committee has yet to put SB432 on the Special Order Calendar. They will meet again tonight to agenda another set of bills that will be heard on Tuesday of next week. Let me be clear. That is still plenty of time to get our bill attached and passed. If it doesn’t happen until Wednesday, there is still a vast amount of time for our bill to make its way to the governor.

The Session builds to a crescendo heading to its final day. If you have never witnessed it, perhaps you could be watching next Friday, from the Florida Channel online. It becomes fast and furious.

The sponsor of SB432 is still confident that his bill will get its floor hearing. I was certainly hoping to get our bill through the process before the real madness, but here we are, and I still believe all is well.

….so we wait.

As is typical in the legislative process, our bill has seen its triumphs and failures. Over the last few weeks, the House version of the bill sailed through all of its committees and passed unanimously on the floor of the House of Representatives.  

On the Senate side, we saw a much slower trajectory.  The Senate bill was not put on the agenda in its second committee, the Education Appropriations Committee (Sen. Gaetz, Chair), and today was the last time this committee will meet for the 2016 legislative session. This would have essentially killed the bill in the Senate.  Gary Lieffers, our lobbyist, did find out that Sen. Gaetz did not have any opposition to our bill, but he could not get it on the agenda with all the other bills that were scheduled. 

Terri Schisler, FRID's Interpreter Regulation Committee Chair, gave the following report: 

As I have learned from Gary [FRID/FAD Lobbyist] over the years, there are some options that can be considered in this situation.

This week Gary has single handedly arranged for our bill to have a second life. There are agreements from both sides to have our bill added (amendment) to another bill that is similar (SB432/HB189, Sen. Hutson/Rep Diaz). All sponsors have agreed and both sides have agreed to pass the bill when it comes up for a vote again. Below is the schedule of events as we expect them to happen.

1. Senate Appropriations committee, Thurs, 2/25, 10:00 am - CS/SB 432, Sen. Hutson's bill will be heard in its final committee. It is expected to pass without any issues.
2. Senate Floor, Wed, 3/2 - Fri. 3/4, 10:00 am - CS/SB 432 will be heard for its second reading. At that time, Sen. Hutson will ask for an amendment to insert our educational interpreter bill language. If it passes, it will come back for a third reading (possibly the following day). When it passes the third reading, it will be sent back to the House.
3. House Floor, Tues. 3/1 - Fri, 3/4, 10:30 am - CS/HB 189 has already passed in the House. Once the Senate bill has its third reading, the House will have to make the same amendment in order for both bills to match. This may take one day to amend it and another day for a final reading.

The following week is the final week of Session, ending on Friday, 3/11. We want our bill to be completed on both sides by 3/4 to avoid the chaos in the final week. 

We were very fortunate that there was a bill that is similar in scope that we could ask for an amendment. We were also fortunate that the bill was sponsored by someone who would be open to that amendment. Sen. Hutson's district includes FSDB. It seems this bill has had fortune on its side. Keep your fingers crossed and tune in to see everything happening.

We all certainly hope that fortune is indeed on our side.  Look for more updates coming your way and start rooting for SB432 and HB189!

At 4:57 PM today, the Florida House of Representatives voted on HB 705.  It passed unanimously (114 YEAS, 0 NAYS).  Click here to see more information on the bill.

No further movement on the Senate side, but stay tuned for additional updates.

Please see this update from our Legislation Committee Chair, Terri Schisler:

We are on the Special Orders for this week in the House. We are the last out of 31 bills submitted by the House Education Committee. That means it may be late on Thursday. Please go to the House webpage and click on the link in the "Session Live" banner at the top of the page to view the session live. The House will be in session starting at 1 pm ET on Wed, 2/17, and Thurs., 2/18.

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/default.aspx

The Senate bill is waiting to be put on the agenda in the Senate Education Appropriations Committee. However, if the House bill passes this week, it will be sent over to the Senate for action. That may expedite the Senate committee process for us and have it heard in the Senate very quickly.

Today at around 12:30 pm, the Education Committee heard HB705(Educational Interpreters Bill) and it passed unanimously (click here to see the votes).  The next step in the bill's process is to be heard on the floor of the House of Representatives.  Stay tuned for more updates!