NIGP 94815: Audiology Services (Including Hearing Aid Services)

NIGP 94815 Audiology Services (Including Hearing Aid Services), Item, encompasses sign language interpreting, audiology, and related special education support services that state and local school districts procure on an as-needed basis to serve deaf, hard-of-hearing, and special-education populations. Recent solicitations reveal that interpreting dominates the code's activity, with districts seeking certified interpreters holding Board of Educational Interpreters (BEI) or Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) credentials, available for standard and extended hours, and capable of delivering Communication Access Real-Time Translation (CART), certified deaf interpretation, and multilingual services. Audiology services appear as components within broader special education contracted-services bundles rather than standalone procurements. Issuing bodies are predominantly independent school districts and regional educational cooperatives in Texas and Florida, with one regional public health authority (Inland Empire Health Plan in California) pursuing a data-abstraction and NLP solution tangentially related to health measure extraction. School districts award contracts on indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity terms with no minimum volume guarantee, typically for an initial twelve-month or three-year term with renewal options extending through four to five years.

Geographic activity centers on Texas (Katy ISD, Eanes ISD) and Florida (Hillsborough County Public Schools, Tacoma Public Schools in Washington), with recent responses due between April and July 2026. Hillsborough County Public Schools issued RFP 26041-DST in April 2026 seeking sign language interpreters with EIPA level 3.5 or RID certification, 24/7 availability, 30-minute response time, and two-hour fulfillment for 235 schools, with an estimated annual budget of $950,000 and evaluation weighting 30 percent on specifications, 25 percent on qualifications, 25 percent on cost, 10 percent on business references, and 10 percent on Small Business Encouragement Program utilization in the Tampa Bay area. Katy ISD issued RFP 2518YT in July 2026 for sign language interpreting across six school districts in the West 10 RDSPD/Deaf Education Cooperative, with responses due July 8, 2026, pricing on an hourly basis by interpreter category (certified ASL, pre-certified, CART, specialty), and evaluation weighting 30 percent on price, 25 percent on reputation and quality, 15 percent on alignment with district needs, 10 percent on long-term cost, and 10 percent on compliance. Eanes ISD's RFP 26-31-04-201, due April 20, 2026, anticipated annual spending of approximately $3,000,000 across speech-language pathology, occupational and physical therapy, educational diagnostician services, psychology, counseling, nursing support, interpreting, audiology, and assistive technology, with staffing capacity and coverage plan weighted at 25 percent in evaluation.