SENATE HEALTH, HUMAN SERVICES AND SENIOR CITIZENS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
ASSEMBLY, No. 4986
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: JUNE 9, 2025
The Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 4986.
This bill, as amended, codifies the early language instruction program for deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind children known as the “Level the Playing Field” program. This program is supported by a $550,000 appropriation to the Department of Human Services under the FY 2025 Appropriations Act. Under the bill, as amended, the program is established within the Department of Health (department), in conjunction with the Department of Education and the Marie H. Katzenbach School for the Deaf, and is named the Early Language Access Program. Unlike the existing program, the bill requires, to the extent applicable under federal or State law and regulation, services provided under the bill for children up to the age of three to be delivered under the department’s Early Intervention Program. The State’s Early Intervention Program, administered by the department, provides services to infants and toddlers, birth to age three, with developmental delays or disabilities.
Under the bill, as amended, the early language instruction program is to support the language acquisition and developmental needs of deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind children aged five and younger and their families. All services delivered under this program are to be free of charge, except when cost sharing requirements imposed under the Early Intervention Program apply. Eligible children and their families must provide proof of the child’s hearing loss, age, and State residency to receive services under the program.
Under the program, the department, at a minimum, is to match each eligible child and eligible child’s family with an American Sign Language Deaf Language Associate to provide the child and family with instruction and support services up to 25 hours a week.
The department is to make available language instruction services in all applicable settings where the eligible child participates in daily activities, including childcare centers, preschool programs, summer camps, and in the child’s home.
Additional services provided under the program, as appropriate to the needs of an eligible child and the eligible child’s family, are to include, but not to be limited to: consultation with licensed audiologists and speech-language pathologists to ensure comprehensive, evidence-based services aligned with the child’s individualized needs; information and referral services to other State and non-State resources; case management services provided by a designated professional, who can provide services consistent with the family’s preferred method of communication including American Sign Language, spoken language, or augmentative and alternative communication; assistance in locating and coordinating a qualified interpreter or real-time caption provider; resources for obtaining hearing aids and other equipment to support the needs of the eligible child, including bone-anchored hearing devices and cochlear implants, access to audiological evaluations, hearing technology maintenance and aural rehabilitation services provided by licensed audiologists, and augmentative and alternative communication evaluations; and the provision of sensitivity training to the eligible child’s health care providers, education or day care providers, or other applicable supports on awareness of the needs of deaf and hard of hearing children and adults.
As amended and reported by the committee, Assembly Bill No. 4986 is identical to Senate Bill No. 3764, which was also amended and reported by the committee on this date.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:
The committee amendments name the program established under the bill the Early Language Access Program.
The committee amendments establish the program in the Department of Health, in conjunction with the Department of Education and the Marie H. Katzenbach School for the Deaf. As introduced, the program was established in the Division of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the Department of Human Services.
The committee amendments require that, to the extent applicable under federal or State law and regulation, services provided under the bill for children up to the age of three to be delivered under the Department of Health’s Early Intervention Program.
The committee amendments provide that the cost sharing requirements imposed under the Early Intervention Program can apply to services provided under the Early Language Access Program, but otherwise must be free of charge. As introduced, all services under the program were required to be free of charge.