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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 209 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 209

    To expand the teacher loan forgiveness provisions of the Higher 
     Education Act of 1965 to include speech-language pathologists.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 6, 2009

 Mr. Wilson of South Carolina introduced the following bill; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Education and Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
    To expand the teacher loan forgiveness provisions of the Higher 
     Education Act of 1965 to include speech-language pathologists.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Helping Our Students Communicate Act 
of 2009''.

SEC. 2. EXPANSION OF LOAN FORGIVENESS TO SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGISTS.

    (a) FFEL Loans.--
            (1) Forgiveness for speech-language pathologists 
        authorized.--Section 428J(b)(1) of the Higher Education Act of 
        1965 (20 U.S.C. 1078-10(b)(1)) is amended to read as follows:
            ``(1) has been employed for 5 consecutive complete school 
        years--
                    ``(A) as a full-time teacher--
                            ``(i) in a school or location that 
                        qualifies under section 465(a)(2)(A) for loan 
                        cancellation for Perkins loan recipients who 
                        teach in such schools or locations; and
                            ``(ii) if employed as an elementary school 
                        or secondary school teacher, is highly 
                        qualified as defined in section 9101 of the 
                        Elementary Secondary Education Act of 1965, or 
                        meets the requirements of subsection (g)(3); or
                    ``(B) as a full-time speech-language pathologist--
                            ``(i) to perform services principally in a 
                        school described in subparagraph (A)(i); and
                            ``(ii) who has, at a minimum, a graduate 
                        degree in speech-language pathology, or 
                        communication sciences and disorders; and''.
            (2) Additional amounts for speech-language pathologists.--
        Section 428J(c)(3) of such Act (20 U.S.C. 1078-10(c)(3)) is 
        amended--
                    (A) in the header, by inserting before the period 
                ``, and speech-language pathologists'';
                    (B) by striking ``and'' at the end of subparagraph 
                (A);
                    (C) by striking the period at the end of 
                subparagraph (B) and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (D) by adding at the end the following new 
                subparagraph:
                    ``(C) a speech-language pathologist who meets the 
                requirements of subsection (b).''.
    (b) Direct Loans.--
            (1) Forgiveness for speech-language pathologists 
        authorized.--Section 460(b)(1) of the Higher Education Act of 
        1965 (20 U.S.C. 1087j(b)(1)) is amended to read as follows:
            ``(1) has been employed for 5 consecutive complete school 
        years--
                    ``(A) as a full-time teacher--
                            ``(i) in a school or location that 
                        qualifies under section 465(a)(2)(A) for loan 
                        cancellation for Perkins loan recipients who 
                        teach in such schools or locations; and
                            ``(ii) if employed as an elementary school 
                        or secondary school teacher, is highly 
                        qualified as defined in section 9101 of the 
                        Elementary Secondary Education Act of 1965, or 
                        meets the requirements of subsection (g)(3); or
                    ``(B) as a full-time speech-language pathologist--
                            ``(i) to perform services principally in a 
                        school described in subparagraph (A)(i); and
                            ``(ii) who has, at a minimum, a graduate 
                        degree in speech-language pathology, or 
                        communication sciences and disorders; and''.
            (2) Additional amounts for speech-language pathologists.--
        Section 460(c)(3) of such Act (20 U.S.C. 1087j(c)(3)) is 
        amended--
                    (A) in the header, by inserting before the period 
                ``, and speech-language pathologists'';
                    (B) by striking ``and'' at the end of subparagraph 
                (A);
                    (C) by striking the period at the end of 
                subparagraph (B) and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (D) by adding at the end the following new 
                subparagraph:
                    ``(C) a speech-language pathologist who meets the 
                requirements of subsection (b).''.
    (c) New Borrower Eligibility.--An individual who is a speech-
language pathologist shall not qualify under the amendments made by 
this section unless such individual is a new borrower (as such term is 
defined in section 103 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1003)) on or after the date that is 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>
```