Emily Pinkham

Thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony in support of HB 1051. My name is Emily Pinkham, and I am a licensed speech-language pathologist (SLP) and AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) specialist. I live and work in New Hampshire, and my role requires me to travel extensively across the state to support students in multiple school districts. On any given week, I may be consulting in several different schools, providing AAC evaluations, collaborating with IEP teams, training staff, and supporting students who rely on communication devices to express even their most basic needs. While I fully support fingerprinting and background checks to ensure student safety, the current SAU-by-SAU system creates significant and unnecessary barriers for providers like myself. Despite already being fingerprinted and cleared in one district, I am often required to repeat the entire process for another district—sometimes multiple times in a single year. Each request involves scheduling appointments, travel, paperwork, fees, and time away from students who are actively waiting for services. HB 1051 would allow school-based service providers to utilize a single, statewide fingerprinting and background-check system, improving both student safety and service delivery. This bill has the support of the New Hampshire Department of Education and would allow providers to be fingerprinted through RSA 189:13-B, the same secure and established system currently used statewide for school bus drivers. This approach maintains rigorous safety standards while eliminating costly and redundant duplication. Under the current SAU-by-SAU system, providers can be required to complete fingerprinting dozens of times over the course of their careers. For specialized providers—particularly those serving students with disabilities—this leads to avoidable delays in services that are often mandated through IEPs, including speech-language therapy, AAC services, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. As an AAC specialist, I work with students who may be non-speaking or minimally speaking. For these students, delays in services are not minor inconveniences—they mean additional time without a reliable way to communicate wants, needs, thoughts, or emotions. I have experienced situations where services were postponed or limited not because of a lack of provider availability or student need, but solely due to administrative barriers related to repeated fingerprinting requirements. HB 1051 is a practical, common-sense solution that protects students, reduces administrative burden, lowers costs, and helps ensure critical services are delivered without unnecessary delay. It supports both school safety and the efficient delivery of specialized services across New Hampshire. I respectfully urge the committee to consider supporting HB 1051 and support a system that allows providers like myself to spend less time navigating redundant processes and more time serving New Hampshire’s students. Thank you for your time and for your continued service to our state. Respectfully submitted, Emily Pinkham, MS, CCC-SLP Speech-Language Pathologist Assistive Technology Professional Boothby Therapy Services