Section 1465.20  Approved Programs

a)         The Department of Professional Regulation (the Department) 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

ii)         Audiology

iii)         Auditory pathology

iv)        Auditory habilitation/rehabilitation

5)         The institution has a clinical practicum that provides students with 350 hours of clinical experience supervised by a licensed speech-language pathologist or audiologist or a person who is ASHA certified or certified in audiology by the American Board of Audiology.  The experience shall take place in at least 2 clinical settings (i.e., academic program, school setting, medical facility, community clinics).

b)         The Department 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)        36 semester credit hours or its equivalent in general education;

B)        24 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)         In determining whether a speech-language pathology assistant program should be approved, the Department shall take into consideration, but not be bound by, accreditation or approval by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

d)         The Department 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, 2003 meet the minimum criteria set forth in this Section and are, therefore, approved.

(Source:  Amended at 27 Ill. Reg. 15530, effective September 19, 2003)