Special Education Language Acquisition (SELA)

House Bill (HB) 548, passed in the 86th Legislative Session, amends Subchapter I, Chapter 29, Education Code by adding Section 29.316. This section requires the commissioner of the Texas Education Agency and the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to ensure that the language acquisition of each child eight years of age or younger who is deaf or hard of hearing is regularly assessed using a tool or assessment.  Additionally, no later than August 31 of each year, a report shall be published on the language acquisition of children eight years of age or younger who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The Special Education Language Acquisition (SELA) collection will report data on the language acquisition of children eight years of age or younger who are deaf or hard of hearing, identified with an auditory impairment or deaf/blind using the following DISABILITY-TYPE codes: ’02’ Deaf-Blindness (Deaf-Blind) or ‘06’ Hearing/Auditory Impairment (Auditory Impairment). The StudentSpecialEdProgramAssociationExtension complex type will be used to gather information about language acquisition services being provided to deaf or hard of hearing students.