A Review of AIDS Policies at Schools for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students

Surveys completed by state boards of education and state schools for the deaf and hard of hearing in 39 states/territories provided information about policies regarding students with HIV+/ AIDS. In addition, copies of the actual policies were provided by some survey respondents. Analysis of the survey data and content analysis of the policies themselves determined that policies vary in comprehensiveness from school to school and from state to state, from brief paragraphs to detailed, multipage sets of instructions. In many cases, these "policies" provide insufficient guidance for handling the complexities of placing and providing services to deaf and hard of hearing HIV+/AIDS students in a residential setting. The data reported and analyzed here were part of a larger but uncompleted study of AIDS policies at schools for deaf and hard of hearing students (see the editor's note).