Resource for working educational interpreters and substitute interpreters, teachers, administrators, parents, students and anyone else interested in information related to educational interpreters.
Interpreter Education Coordinator
Joelynne Ball , M.S, CI and CT
Idaho Educational Services for the Deaf and the Blind
3071 E. Franklin Rd. Suite 212
Meridian, Idaho 83642
Cell Phone:208-901-1308
Idaho Educational Interpreter Act
Implemented on July 1, 2009, this Statute requires a minimum standard of skill for all educational interpreters in the State of Idaho.
The testing or certification that shows a person has met the minimum standard is listed below.
Sign language interpreter: (Must have one of the three listed below)
Oral Transliterator:
Cued Speech Transliterator:
The EIPA is a national assessment that was developed and run by Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. Individual states have local test administrators (LTA'S) that administer the assessment and send the candidates testing tapes to Boys Town to be rated by specially trained raters. Idaho has three LTA's that bid for slots throughout the year. Boys Town has control over how many slots each LTA is allotted and there is a bidding process to attain testing slots. As LTA's we have to predict how many slots we anticipate that we can fill and we request "bid" for those slots and which month they will be offered in. Boys Town looks at how many slots have been bid for globally and how many they can process and rate. At that point, Boys Town alerts the LTA's as to how many slots they have been awarded.
Link to the complete Statute, Title 33, Chapter 13:
33-1304. Qualification of educational interpreters, subsection (3) addresses who qualifies to apply for an emergency authorization. Any educational interpreter that is hired after the date of July 1, 2009 and has never worked in an Idaho Public School prior to that date can apply for an emergency authorization. The application form and process description is provided at the link below.
View or print the Emergency Authorization Application here.
33-1304. Qualification of educational interpreters, subsection (4) addresses graduates of interpreter preparation/training programs. A graduate will have one year after their graduation date to meet the minimum standard.