David Ward, speech-language pathologist
Find Oklahoma's open K-12 educational interpreter jobs here, plus the state qualifications, registry rules, and pay data to check before you apply.
Statutory qualifications
Oklahoma sets interpreter qualifications in 70 O.S. § 13-115.3, part of the Oklahoma Educational Interpreter for the Deaf Act. A June 2021 memo from the State Department of Education (OSDE) restates the terms. You need the interpersonal skills to work with staff and students, general knowledge of academic subjects, special education, and deaf culture, and one of these:
- completion of an interpreter training program
- a bachelor's degree
- three or more years of work in a field related to deaf education
You also need RID certification, NAD Level IV or better, Level III or better on the Quality Assurance Screening Test (QAST), or documented comparable proficiency. OSDE's 2026 Special Education Policies and Procedures lists the accepted levels as QAST III/III, EIPA 3.5, ESSE 3.5, RID, NIC, or NAD.
Registry and CEUs
OSDE maintains the Educational Interpreter Registry and posts the approved list; you join through the form on that page. If you hold an EIPA credential, OSDE's CEU program requires one CEU (10 hours) each calendar year, with 0.5 CEU in an education topic and 0.1 in ethics. OSDE removes interpreters who miss the CEUs from the registry.
Moving from another state
In the 2021 memo, OSDE advises that a district can hire you provisionally for up to 180 calendar days if you passed another state's exam at a level matching QAST III. Within that window you must earn a qualifying Oklahoma rating. You supply the documents, such as sample assessments or the assessing body's descriptions, that allow a side-by-side comparison of the two exams.
Every public school employee goes through state and national criminal history checks under 70 O.S. § 5-142. A district can employ you for no more than 60 calendar days while national results are pending.
Oklahoma School for the Deaf
The Oklahoma School for the Deaf (OSD) in Sulphur provides residential, early intervention, and outreach services at no charge, according to the OSDE manual. OSD consults on site with public school districts, and its outreach staff give speech-language, psycho-educational, and audiological assessments to children across the state.
With OSDE funding, OSD offers free training to school interpreters: workshops, mentoring, and a Resident Interpreter Program on its campus. OSD also employs three full-time certified interpreters for IEP meetings, classes, and campus events.
Pay
The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median annual wage for Oklahoma interpreters and translators at $48,980 in May 2025, a figure that covers all employers.
Related roles
OSDE's personnel table lists a deaf-blind intervener, a paraprofessional who works 1:1 with a student under a special education teacher's supervision. The role requires paraprofessional certification plus training in deaf-blindness.
Each listing on this page is an open educational interpreter posting in Oklahoma.