Effective immediately, the new law mandates the State Board of Education to develop a comprehensive sign language curriculum for students.
This legislation received unanimous support in the Senate (50-0) and the House (121-0), with Governor Reeves signing it into law on April 15th.
Mississippi now joins a growing list of states including Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and Maine, where students can opt to study sign language as a recognized foreign language.
According to the National Association of the Deaf, more than 40 states officially recognize American Sign Language (ASL) as a language.
