Annual Survey of Hearing-Impaired Children and Youth: 1991-92 School Year

Annual Survey of Hearing-Impaired Children and Youth Annual Survey of Hearing-Impaired Children and Youth: 1991-92 School Year Arthur N. Schildroth and Sue A. Hotto The summary data reported in the following tables represent information reported to the Annual Survey of Hearing-Impaired Children and Youth, conducted by the Center for Assessment and Demographic Studies (CADS) at Gallaudet University's Research Institute. In Table 1, 1991-92 data are compared with data from the 1984-85 Annual Survey to indicate possible trends within the recent educational environment of hearing-impaired children and youth. CADS has been conducting its national Annual Survey since 1968 and has provided educators, legislators, and researchers with, as one reviewer stated, "more extensive demographic information concerning deaf students than any other student population with special needs." Data collected by the survey include demographic, audiological , and educationally related information about the students and program information about the schools they attend. Special studies using the Annual Survey as a sampling framework have been conducted by CADS in a variety of areas: achievement testing, communication, genetics, transition into postsecondary careers. Two books have resulted from the Annual Survey data collection activities, Deaf Children in America (1986) -λινά Deaf Students and the School-to-Work Transition (1989). CADS has collaborated with the Texas Education Agency in conducting a special Texas State Survey of Hearing-Impaired Children and Youth for the past 17 years. The center also conducts a special Louisiana survey, which includes statewide assessment of hearing-impaired students. A very large majority of the children reported to the Annual Survey are receiving primary or secondary special educational services in local public schools or in center schools, both residential and day. Data are also collected from private schools enrolling hearing-impaired students, although the numbers are small. Since the survey is completely voluntary, the data reported to the survey do not include all hearing-impaired students receiving special educational services across the United States. If the "child count" figures reported by the states to the federal government each year accurately reflect the total number of "hard of hearing and deaf" students receiving special educational services in the United States, then the Annual Survey figures represent approximately 60% of these hearing-impaired children and youth. (Due to certain differences in definitions and age categories, an exact comparison of Annual Survey and "child count" data is not possible.) Coverage of residential schools by the Annual Survey has been more complete than for local schools, due largely to program dispersion and site changes at the local level. The tables on the following pages represent summary data from the Annual Survey. Several comments apply to these tables. 1. The Annual Survey data reported in the tables are independent of the Annals survey, which resulted in the listing of schools and programs in this issue and in the program and services summary following that listing. Annual Survey data are confidential, i.e., the information reported to the Annual Survey is never linked with individual schools or programs in the reports and research articles published by CADS. 2. In comparing the 1985 and 1992 survey data in Table 1, only those variables have been included for which wording and context of the questions on the survey forms were the same or equivalent for both years. In a few cases there were slight changes in wording or in context which may affect the comparisons to some small degree. 3. Age has been calculated as of December 31 for each student. 4. Hispanics may be of any race. 5. Degree of hearing loss has been calculated in terms of a better -ear average (BEA), i.e., by averaging the pure-tone thresholds for the speech range (500, 1000, and 2000 Hz) in the better ear. The "profound" category is a BEA greater than 90 dB, "severe" is a BEA between 71 and 90 dB, and "less-than-severe ," a BEA of less than 71 dB, with the latter category including four subgroups. For approximately 6,000 children and youth, CADS accepted a school estimate of student hearing loss in terms of the same six categories used for calculating the BEA. (In general, these estimates show a distribution...