a) The
Department of Financial and Professional Regulation-Division of Professional
Regulation (Division) shall approve a speech-language pathology or audiology
program if it meets the following minimum criteria:
1) The institution is legally recognized and
authorized by the jurisdiction in which it is located to confer the appropriate
degree.
2) The institution has a
faculty that consists of a sufficient number of full-time instructors to ensure
educational obligations to the student are fulfilled. The faculty must have
demonstrated competence as evidenced by appropriate degrees in their areas of
teaching from professional colleges or institutions.
3) The program director must be trained and
hold a master's or doctoral degree in speech-language pathology, in audiology
or in speech and hearing science.
4) The institution has an integrated
curriculum plan that includes at least the following subject areas in
professional education (60 semester hours required):
A) Basic Communication Processes
i) Anatomic and physiological bases
ii) Physical bases and processes of the
production and perception of speech, language and hearing
iii) Linguistic and psycholinguistic
variables related to normal development and use of speech, language and
hearing
B)
Speech-Language Pathology/Audiology
i) Speech
and language disorders, which must include, at a minimum, didactic training in
the following subject areas:
* articulation and fluency;
* voice and resonance;
* receptive and expressive language in speaking;
* listening, reading and writing;
* hearing;
* swallowing (oral, pharyngeal, esophageal and related
functions (including oral function for feeding and orofacial myology));
* cognitive aspects of communication;
* social aspects of communication; and
* augmentative and alternative communication
modalities
ii)
Audiology
iii) Auditory and
vestibular pathology
iv) Auditory
and vestibular habilitation/rehabilitation
5) The institution has a clinical practicum
that provides speech-language pathology students with 375 hours of clinical
experience supervised in the subject areas in subsection(a)(4)(B)(i) that is by
a licensed speech-language pathologist or a minimum of 1500 hours clinical
practicum supervised by a licensed audiologist. The experience shall take place
in at least 2 clinical settings (i.e., academic program, school setting,
medical facility, community clinics).
b) The Division shall approve a
speech-language pathology assistant program if it meets the following minimum
criteria:
1) The institution is legally
recognized and authorized by the jurisdiction in which it is located to confer
the appropriate degree.
2) The
institution has a faculty that consists of a sufficient number of full-time
instructors to ensure educational obligations to the student are fulfilled. The
faculty must have demonstrated competence as evidenced by appropriate degrees
in their areas of teaching from professional colleges or
institutions.
3) The program
director must be trained and hold a master's or doctoral degree in
speech-language pathology, in audiology or in speech and hearing
science.
4) The institution has an
integrated curriculum plan that includes at least the following:
A) 24 semester credit hours or its equivalent
in general education;
B) 36
semester credit hours or its equivalent in the following technical content
areas:
i) an overview of normal processes of
communication as relates to hearing, speech and language;
ii) an overview of communication disorders as
relates to hearing, speech and language;
iii) instruction in speech-language pathology
assistant-level service delivery practices, including basic audiometric
screening;
iv) instruction in
workplace behaviors to minimally include ethics, standards of employee conduct
and speech-language pathology assistant duty restrictions;
v) cultural and linguistic factors in
communication;
vi) observation;
and
C) 100 hours of
supervised field work experience supervised by a licensed speech-language
pathologist at least 50% of the time when the student is engaged in contact
with the patient or client.
c) The Division has determined that all
speech-language pathology and audiology master's and doctoral degree programs
accredited or approved by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology
and Speech-Language Pathology as of January 1, 2008 meet the minimum criteria
set forth in this Section and are, therefore, approved.
d) The Division has determined that all
audiology doctoral degree programs accredited or approved by the Accreditation
Commission for Audiology Education meet the minimum criteria set forth in this
Section and are, therefore, approved.
e) The Division has determined that foreign
applicants can meet the speech-language pathology master's program requirement
if an applicant provides a verifiable letter from the American
Speech-Language-Hearing Association which states the applicant has met the
academic and clinical experience requirements for the Certificate of Clinical
Competence.