Committee approves expanding who can certify handicap placards

The Senate Labor, Health & Social Services Committee voted 5-0 to pass Senate File 23, a bill that would expand which health professionals may certify eligibility for temporary and permanent handicap placards.

Representative Daniel Clauston, who presented the bill, told the committee the measure grew out of a situation in Gillette where no medical doctor or nurse practitioner was available to sign a temporary placard after podiatric surgery, leaving the patient without timely access to parking accommodation. "In my building, we had a physician assistant, we had [a] physical therapist, but we did not have an MD or a nurse practitioner. So we had no one to write for this placard," Clauston said.

The bill would add physician assistants, physical therapists, occupational therapists, podiatrists and optometrists to the…