- Senator Angela Hill, the bill’s author, said the legislation came at the request of a teacher in the Pearl River County School District.
Starting in July, Mississippi’s high school students will have another option to meet their foreign language curriculum graduation requirement – sign language.
Authored by State Senator Angela Hill (R), SB 2339 was signed into law by Governor Tate Reeves (R) last week.
The new law directs the State Board of Education to develop a curriculum related to the study of sign language.
“Any such class developed by the board may count as an academic credit for foreign languages for the purposes of high school graduation requirements,” the law states.
Senator Hill said the bill came at the request of a teacher in the Pearl River County School District.
“I think it’s just one more option to have for a foreign language credit,” Hill said.
The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 50-0 and the House by a vote of 121-0, gaining universal support in both legislative bodies. Governor Reeves signed it into law on April 15th.
“Usually, the simple things are the hardest to get passed,” Hill said.
Now, Mississippi will join a growing number of other states across the nation that allow students to choose sign language as a foreign language option. Some of those states include Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Maine. The National Association of the Deaf notes that over 40 states officially recognize ASL as a language.
